High winds hamper firefighting efforts in western Turkey
Hundreds of firefighters were on Friday battling strong winds to quench a wildfire in southwestern Turkey as high winds stoked a new blaze, complicating efforts to bring the fires under control, a minister said.
Although Turkey experienced early wildfires in 2025 due to drought, it had been largely spared until now thanks to heavy winter rains and snowfall that replenished groundwater and protected vegetation.
But since Wednesday, firefighters have been called out to 218 fires, Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli told reporters.
"Of that number, 213 have been completely brought under control and there are five ongoing fires," he said, indicating that strong winds were posing a "very serious negative factor".
Firefighters were also tackling a new blaze in Susurluk, 200 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Izmir, fanned by winds of more than 50 kilometres per hour (30 miles per hour), he said.
The strong winds were "a significant obstacle" to firefighting efforts with the risk likely to continue into next week, Yumakli added.
Strong winds also aggravated the fire in the Cine area, about 100km inland from the resort of Bodrum, which spread quickly towards inhabited areas on Friday afternoon, notably Dutluoluk village, which had been evacuated as a precaution on Thursday, the private NTV reported.
The fire began on Thursday, with hundreds of firefighters working through the night to evacuate nearly 1,000 livestock animals. They were joined by more forces as day broke, with nine helicopters, three firefighting planes, 42 fire engines and nine water tankers engaged in battling the blaze, Anadolu state news agency said.
Residents said the flames spread "at an unbelievable speed" but their efforts to try and douse them by using tractors to tow in tankers of water and shovel earth did not work, NTV said.
- 'We've been reduced to ashes' -
“We’ve been reduced to ashes. We have nothing left. My dog is gone... I miss him so much," sobbed Arzu Celep, a local woman in a patterned headscarf, her face etched with grief.
Others spoke of devastated orchards and olive groves.
"Everything we owned has gone up in flames. We took our animals uphill, if we'd stayed here, we'd have gone up in flames too," said another woman called Raziye Askin.
Environment Minister Murat Kurum said 65 structures had "sustained severe damage or been destroyed", almost all in the southern Antalya and Mugla regions.
In Mugla, reports said at least 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres) of forestland was destroyed.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) website, there have been 71 fires in Turkey this year, which have ravaged 25,701 hectares (63,500 acres) of land.
M.Martin--PI
