Wildfires threaten Turkey's fourth-largest city as southern Europe grapples with blazes
Overnight fires in the forested mountains surrounding Bursa, in northwest Turkey, spread rapidly, tinting the night sky over the city's eastern suburbs with a red glow. Dozens of severe wildfires have hit the country daily since late June, with the government declaring the two western provinces of Izmir and Bilecik as disaster areas on Friday.
Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli told reporters late Sunday that 3,515 people had been safely evacuated from villages to the northeast of Bursa as more than 1,900 firefighters battled the flames. The highway linking Bursa to the capital, Ankara, was closed as surrounding forests burned.
'Apocalypse'
A firefighter died from a heart attack while on the job, the city's mayor, Mustafa Bozbey, said, adding that the flames had scorched 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) around the city. One person was killed and two seriously injured when a water tanker fell into a ravine outside Bursa, local media reported.
Orhan Saribal, an opposition parliamentarian for the province, described the scene as "an apocalypse." By morning, lessening winds brought some respite to firefighters, who continued efforts to battle the flames. However, TV footage revealed an ashen landscape where farms and pine forests had earlier stood.
Yumakli said fire crews across the country confronted 84 separate blazes Saturday. The country's northwest was under the greatest threat, including Karabuk, where wildfires have burned since Tuesday and 1,839 people have been evacuated from 19 villages.
Aside from Bursa and Karabuk, a major fire was raging in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, the minister said, warning that growing winds could suddenly reignite fires not properly watered down after being extinguished.
Beleagured firefighters and rescue workers saved thousands of livestock and pets that had been left behind in the rush to evacuate threatened areas. Local media also showed images of workers assisting wildlife caught among the fires.
Unseasonably high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds have been fueling the wildfires. The General Directorate of Meteorology said Turkey recorded its highest ever temperature of 50.5° Celsius (122.9° Fahrenheit) in the southeastern Sirnak province on Friday. The highest temperatures for July were seen in 132 other locations, it said. Fifteen people have died in recent weeks, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers killed Wednesday in a fire in Eskisehir in western Turkey.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said late Saturday that prosecutors had investigated fires in 33 provinces since June 26, and that legal action had been taken against 97 suspects.
Code red warning
On Bulgaria's southern borders with Greece and Turkey, as well as the western Serbian frontier, firefighters battled wildfires as the government declared the worst-hit provinces disaster zones. Residents across nearly half the country were issued with a code red warning, the highest level.
National Fire Service chief Alexander Djartov told reporters that 236 wildfires were burning, many fanned by strong winds. The government had asked EU partners for help, he added, and aircraft were expected from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Hungary and Sweden later Sunday.
In the southwestern Strumyani region, overnight blazes forced firefighters to retreat. They were reinforced Sunday by soldiers. Dozens of people fled their homes in the western Tran region as flames threatened villages near the Serbian border.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
8 hours ago
- France 24
Turkey, the Balkans battle wildfires as Mediterranean sees record-breaking heat waves
Turkey faces a 'very risky week' for wildfires, an official said Monday, as blazes across parts of southeast Europe and the Balkans damaged homes and led to a huge firefighting operation that included evacuations. Nearly 100 people face prosecution over the fires in Turkey. Blazes erupted near Bursa, Turkey's fourth-largest city, over the weekend. A wildfire to the northeast of Bursa had been largely extinguished, but one to the south of the city continued, although its intensity had been 'significantly reduced", Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli told reporters in Ankara. He also said that a fire that has been burning for six days in Karabuk, in northwest Turkey, had also 'been reduced in intensity", and a blaze in Karamanmaras in the south had largely been brought under control. A wildfire also erupted Monday in forests outside the western port city of Izmir, where 11 aircraft were helping ground-based fire units and residents battle the blaze. 'We are in a very risky week," Yumakli said of the wildfires. 01:38 In Greece, firefighters raced to tackle a wildfire that broke out Monday near a university campus close to the centre of Athens. Water-dropping planes and helicopters buzzed over the city centre as they headed to the wildfire near the National Technical University of Athens, located in foothills ringing the Greek capital. In all, 11 planes and eight helicopters were reinforcing 110 firefighters on the ground, the fire department said. Police announced road closures in the area, including to the only highway that circles the city. A waning fire on the island of Kythera, which lies south of the Peloponnese, was reinvigorated by strong winds. Over the weekend, the blaze burned through around 10% of the small island's land mass, triggering the evacuation of several villages. A Turkish firefighting team of 22 personnel and five vehicles crossed the northern border Monday to assist Bulgarian crews fight a large fire near the village of Lesovo, which was evacuated. The blaze was one of hundreds across Bulgaria, the most severe of which was near the southwestern village of Strumyani. The Interior Ministry described the fire as 'extremely large' and 'widespread", leading to 200 firefighters being withdrawn because of the effects of high winds on the fire. Several villages have been extensively damaged, with dozens of homes burned to the ground. By Monday, 269 fires had been extinguished in the previous 24 hours, the government said. Other European Union countries have responded to Bulgaria's requests for help, sending firefighting helicopters and planes. In several instances, the cause of fires have been determined to be carelessness by people, such as open fires and discarded cigarettes. Senior Interior Ministry official Miroslav Rashkov said that two people had been arrested for deliberately starting fires and would be prosecuted. Turkey has been fighting severe wildfires since late June. In Bursa, three volunteer firefighters were killed after their water tanker overturned, local news agency IHA reported. One died at the scene and the two others were pulled from the tanker and hospitalised but died late Sunday. The volunteer crew from the province of Bolu was on its way to the village of Aglasan, northeast of Bursa, to combat a blaze when the vehicle fell into a ditch beside a rough forest track, the agency reported. Separately, officials said earlier Sunday a firefighter died of a heart attack while battling a blaze. The fatalities brought the total deaths over the past month to 17, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers killed Wednesday in a fire in the western city of Eskisehir. The huge blazes around Bursa forced more than 3,500 people to flee their homes. While firefighting teams have contained the damage to a limited number of homes across affected areas in Turkey, vast tracts of forest have been turned to ash. Unseasonably high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds have been fueling the wildfires. Turkey and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean are experiencing record-breaking heat waves. The government had earlier declared disaster areas in two western provinces, Izmir and Bilecik. Turkey battled at least 44 separate fires Sunday, Yumakli said. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that 99 suspects faced prosecution in relation to the wildfires. In Albania, firefighters battled at least six separate wildfires Monday, the defence ministry said. Two weeks of blazes have ravaged thousands of hectares, or acres, of forest in the Balkan country. The areas most at risk were in the northeast, where inaccessible mountain plateaus had water-dropping aircraft carrying out the bulk of the firefighting. In the country's southern region, overnight winds ignited blazes in the municipalities of Delvine and Konispol and in the Himare district on the Adriatic coast, which suffered wildfires last week. Authorities said that at least a dozen people were arrested over the weekend over the wildfires.
France 24
a day ago
- France 24
Turkey battles wildfires as heatwave grips Med
Around 20 villages have been evacuated, officials said, and more than 3,500 people forced to leave their homes. "We are burning up, we don't even know where to go anymore," Asmin Gezginci, 24, said while returning from a park to her home in the Kurdish-majority southeastern city of Diyarbakir. Temperatures had already soared to a record high of 50.5 degrees Celsius (123 Fahrenheit) on Friday in Silopi, two hours from Gezginci's home. According to weather forecasts, the heatwave will continue this week with temperatures of 40C to 45C in the central Anatolia region and 45C to 50C forecast in the southeast on Tuesday. On Monday, local authorities in Diyarbakir warned residents about temperatures "four to six degrees above seasonal norms until August 2". In the city, the thermometer was already showing 45.4C at midday, an AFP journalist saw. The heatwave has exacerbated forest fires on the dry ground that have spread rapidly in windy conditions. Firefighters tackled blazes around Bursa in the northwest on Monday, the country's fourth-largest city and a major industrial centre, for the third consecutive day. Their efforts were hampered by strong winds fanning the flames, according to Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli. Some residents used tractors to transport water tanks, while television images showed others rushing toward the blazes with bottles of water in their hands. Response 'sometimes limited' But the intensity of a fire in Karabuk in the north has diminished, and a fire in Kahramanmaras in the south is now "under control", Yumakli said. "Given the size and intensity of the fires, the state's ability to respond quickly to such disasters is sometimes limited," he acknowledged. "If there is wind, there are no planes, and it takes hours, even days, for you to take control," he said. In recent days, 19 villages had to be evacuated in the Safranbolu region in the north, and more than 3,500 people around Bursa. In a televised speech after a weekly cabinet meeting, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 96 percent of the fires were caused by human activity such as cigarette butts and picnic fires. There were also a few cases of sabotage, he said. "Let us not forget that this is a war, a defence of our green homeland, against this insidious enemy," Erdogan said. "We are doing what is necessary, and we will continue to do so." Last week, a wildfire killed at least 10 forest workers and rescuers fighting a blaze near Eskisehir in western Turkey. A firefighter battling the flames died of a heart attack on Saturday. Three more people died Sunday in an accident involving a water tanker truck that was used to battle a blaze, Bursa authorities said. According to Erdogan, more than 3,000 fires have broken out since the beginning of summer, and authorities warn the situation will remain critical until October. A UN report on desertification worldwide estimates that 88 percent of Turkey's territory is at risk: rainfall is expected to decrease 30 percent by the end of the century, while temperatures are expected to rise by 5C to 6C compared to the averages recorded between 1961 and 1990. New fire in Greece Across the Aegean Sea in Greece, where blazes have ravaged homes and sparked evacuations across the country this summer, firefighters worked Monday to contain outbreaks after bringing dozens under control over the weekend. Even as the heat wave gripping the country began to ease, a new forest fire broke out near the university campus east of Athens, in the municipality of Zografou. According to firefighters, 65 firefighters, 20 vehicles, seven helicopters and six planes were mobilised to contain the flames. Greece has endured heatwave conditions for a week, with temperatures passing 40C in many areas. And on the Iberian Peninsula, four Spanish planes joined more than 250 Portuguese firefighters battling a blaze Monday in an isolated mountain region near their border, authorities said. The blaze in north Portugal's Viana do Castelo district was spreading in two directions and difficult to tackle because of the strong winds, civil protection chief Marco Domingues said. One firefighter has been injured. Authorities have put much of northern and southern Portugal on the highest alert for wildfires because of high temperatures and strong winds.
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
Turkey's fourth largest city at risk as wildfires sweep southern Europe
Wildfires that have engulfed Turkey for weeks threatened the country's fourth-largest city on Sunday, forcing more than 3,500 people to flee their homes and leaving two people dead. Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro are also battling blazes fed by unusually high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds. Overnight fires in the forested mountains surrounding Bursa, in northwest Turkey, spread rapidly, tinting the night sky over the city's eastern suburbs with a red glow. Dozens of severe wildfires have hit the country daily since late June, with the government declaring the two western provinces of Izmir and Bilecik as disaster areas on Friday. Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli told reporters late Sunday that 3,515 people had been safely evacuated from villages to the northeast of Bursa as more than 1,900 firefighters battled the flames. The highway linking Bursa to the capital, Ankara, was closed as surrounding forests burned. A firefighter died from a heart attack while on the job, the city's mayor, Mustafa Bozbey, said, adding that the flames had scorched 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) around the city. One person was killed and two seriously injured when a water tanker fell into a ravine outside Bursa, local media reported. Orhan Saribal, an opposition parliamentarian for the province, described the scene as 'an apocalypse.' By morning, lessening winds brought some respite to firefighters, who continued efforts to battle the flames. However, TV footage revealed an ashen landscape where farms and pine forests had earlier stood. Yumakli said fire crews across the country confronted 84 separate blazes Saturday. The country's northwest was under the greatest threat, including Karabuk, where wildfires have burned since Tuesday and 1,839 people have been evacuated from 19 villages. Aside from Bursa and Karabuk, a major fire was raging in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, the minister said, warning that growing winds could suddenly reignite fires not properly watered down after being extinguished. Beleagured firefighters and rescue workers saved thousands of livestock and pets that had been left behind in the rush to evacuate threatened areas. Local media also showed images of workers assisting wildlife caught among the fires. Unseasonably high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds have been fueling the wildfires. The General Directorate of Meteorology said Turkey recorded its highest ever temperature of 50.5 degrees Celsius (122.9 degrees Fahrenheit) in the southeastern Sirnak province on Friday. The highest temperatures for July were seen in 132 other locations, it said. Fifteen people have died in recent weeks, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers killed Wednesday in a fire in Eskisehir in western Turkey. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said late Saturday that prosecutors had investigated fires in 33 provinces since June 26, and that legal action had been taken against 97 suspects. In Greece, firefighters battled active wildfires in the country's southwest and on the island of Kythera on Sunday, following a blaze that scorched the northern Athens suburb of Kryoneri on Saturday. High temperatures, reaching 38 C (100 F) or more, persist across much of the country, though winds have eased slightly. In Kryoneri, 27 residents were evacuated overnight with police assistance after some initially ignored warnings. Authorities urged the public to comply with evacuation orders, warning that resistance puts both civilians and rescuers in danger. The fire service reported three people hospitalized with breathing issues and one firefighter treated for burns at a military hospital. On the island of Evia, where another fire is now under control, media reports indicate large numbers of animals perished in barns. On Bulgaria's southern borders with Greece and Turkey, as well as the western Serbian frontier, firefighters battled wildfires as the government declared the worst-hit provinces disaster zones. Residents across nearly half the country were issued with a code red warning, the highest level. National Fire Service chief Alexander Djartov told reporters that 236 wildfires were burning, many fanned by strong winds. The government had asked EU partners for help, he added, and aircraft were expected from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Hungary and Sweden later Sunday. In the southwestern Strumyani region, overnight blazes forced firefighters to retreat. They were reinforced Sunday by soldiers. Dozens of people fled their homes in the western Tran region as flames threatened villages near the Serbian border.
