Fresh wildfires engulf Turkey as 1,500 flee their homes and firefighter dies days after raging blazes killed 13
A firefighter has died as they battled the rising flames which come just days after another 13 people were killed in terrifying fires.
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Residents in Bursa were alerted of the serious fires early on Sunday.
Flames first broke out in forested mountainous areas in northwest Turkey as they rapidly spread across the region.
The Bursa governor's office said in a statement that 1,765 people had been safely evacuated from villages to the northeast.
More than 1,100 firefighters have been drafted in to help save those still trapped and to extinguish the flames.
Fears are also surrounding the highway linking Bursa to the capital of Ankara after it was closed on Sunday amid the fires burning through the surrounding woodlands.
The flames have scorched 7,413 acres around the city so far, according to the city's mayor, Mustafa Bozbey.
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BreakingNews.ie
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- BreakingNews.ie
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The death toll from wildfires outside the city of Bursa in north-west Turkey has risen to four after two volunteer firefighters died. The pair died in hospital after they were pulled from a water tanker that rolled while heading to a forest fire, news agency IHA reported. Advertisement Another worker died earlier at the scene of the accident and a firefighter died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack. Firefighters work to extinguish a wildfire in Bursa, Turkey (Sercan Ozkurnazli/DIA Images via AP) Their deaths raised Turkey's wildfire fatalities to 17 since late June, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers killed on Wednesday in a fire in Eskisehir, western Turkey. Huge fires around Bursa, Turkey's fourth-largest city, broke out over the weekend, leading to more than 3,500 people fleeing their homes. On Monday morning, fog-like smoke from ongoing fires and smouldering foliage hung over the city. Advertisement Unseasonably high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds have been fuelling the wildfires, with Turkey and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean experiencing record-breaking heatwaves. The fires around Bursa were among hundreds to have hit Turkey over the past month. While firefighting teams have contained the damage to a limited number of homes, vast tracts of forest have been turned to ash. The water tanker crew comprised volunteers from nearby Bolu province heading to the village of Aglasan, north-east of Bursa, to combat a blaze when the vehicle fell into a ditch while negotiating a rough forest track, IHA reported. Advertisement Turkey battled at least 44 separate fires on Sunday, forestry minister Ibrahim Yumakli said late on Sunday. Firefighters in Bursa, Turkey (Sercan Ozkurnazli/DIA Images via AP) He identified two fires in Bursa province, as well as blazes in Karabuk, north-west Turkey, and Kahramanmaras in the south, as the most serious. The government declared disaster areas in two western provinces, Izmir and Bilecik. Prosecutions have been launched against 97 people in 33 of Turkey's 81 provinces in relation to the fires, justice minister Yilmaz Tunc said. Advertisement A crowd of people gathered on Sunday evening outside a police station in the village of Harmancik, 57 kilometres (35 miles) south of Bursa, after learning a suspected arsonist was detained there. The angry crowd demanded for the suspect to be handed over to them. The crowd dispersed after police assured them a thorough investigation would be undertaken.
