3 days ago
Four dead in Turkey wildfires as blazes continue across Greece
Four people have died in wildfires in Turkey as firefighters battle to contain blazes across the country and in southern Europe amid sweltering temperatures.
More than 3,500 people have been evacuated from the area around Bursa, Turkey's fourth-largest city, while two volunteer firefighters died in hospital after being pulled from an overturned water tanker that was on its way to fight the forest fire, the IHA news agency reported. Another emergency responder was killed at the scene and a firefighter died of a heart attack earlier in the weekend.
Some 2,300 firefighters battled the flames and gusty winds on Sunday night as fires spread rapidly, tinting the night sky red. The scene was described as 'an apocalypse' by Orhan Saribal, an opposition politician for the province.
'A forest burning is like someone taking a gun and shooting at our homeland,' said Ibrahim Youmakli, the Turkish minister of agriculture and forestry.
Youmakli added that at least 44 separate fires were burning across the country, with 17 blaze-related fatalities having been recorded since late June. Other regions affected include Antalya, Mersin and Kahramanmaras.
Yılmaz Tunc, the justice minister, revealed that investigations into possible arson were under way. In Bursa a 30-year-old suspect, Ufuk A, was detained after locals spotted a petrol canister in his vehicle near the fire's origin.
In Greece, firefighters continued to battle blazes on five fronts as the authorities issued a new high-risk fire alert for multiple regions, despite managing to contain a spate of wildfires over the weekend.
In the Peloponnese area west of Athens, along with the islands of Crete, Evia, Kythira and Euboea, teams remained to handle any potential flare-ups.
In one of the most serious incidents, a fire near the village of Drosopigi, close to Athens, burnt down two houses, forcing residents to flee. At least five civilians and six firefighters were taken to hospital for treatment of burns and smoke inhalation. More than 100 firefighters continue to battle the flames.
Greece requested emergency support, through the EU Civil Protection mechanism, asking for six firefighting aircraft to join local forces. Teams from Italy and the Czech Republic have assisted.
In Chania, Crete, a large fire damaged homes and a church. Crews on the popular tourist destination of Kythira were also fighting a large blaze estimated to have spread around half of the island, according to the deputy mayor Giorgos Komninos.
'Houses, beehives, olive trees have been burnt,' Komninos told the state-run ERT News channel.
• Greece wildfires: is it safe to travel?
Elsewhere in Europe, beachgoers on the coast of Sardinia were forced to flee by boat after a nearby wildfire blocked all other escape routes and trapped some 200 cars. Black smoke could be seen rising from the beach in Villasimius in the south of the island.
Firefighters were also facing wildfires in Albania, Montenegro and Bulgaria amid unusually high temperatures across the continent.
• Wildfires: could this be the worst year on record?
Last month fires on Greece's fifth-biggest island, Chios, in the northern Aegean, swept across 11,600 acres. Earlier in July, a wildfire on the island of Crete forced the evacuation of 5,000 tourists.
Greece's deadliest fire on record killed 104 people outside Athens in 2018. The country's government has repeatedly attributed rising rates of wildfires to climate change.
