ISTANBUL: Two wildfires that began overnight near the western Turkish resort of Izmir were raging out of control on Thursday, fuelled by high winds, officials said.
“Strong winds are making firefighting efforts difficult in Izmir,“ Turkey’s forestry directorate said on X as aerial firefighting planes and helicopters resumed their sorties at sunrise.
Locals in at least five districts in the two areas were evacuated as a precaution but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Footage posted online of one of the fires — near Cesme, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Izmir — showed the sky darkened with vast clouds of smoke and flames raging over the treetops.
The Cesme blaze started on Wednesday evening, some 24 hours after firefighters managed to successfully tackle several other fires that had ravaged the Izmir area since the weekend.
Two planes and six helicopters were battling high winds to try and tackle the fire, according to private television channel NTV, which said three neighbourhoods had been evacuated.
It said the fire had damaged power and phone cables, and several buildings.
Many animals had been evacuated from the area, where many livestock farms are located, it added.
“The fire in Cesme is quite terrifying in terms of its area and magnitude,“ forest monitoring group Orman Takip said on X.
Izmir governor Suleyman Elban quoted witnesses and technicians as saying said the fire appeared to have been sparked by a power cable.
Although the main Cesme-Izmir highway was closed overnight, it was subsequently reopened although civilian vehicles were banned for safety reasons, the channel said.
Another forest fire was raging in Odemis about 100 kilometres east of Izmir, where two planes and nine helicopters were trying to quench the flames, local media said.
The fire damaged several houses and to neighbourhoods were evacuated as a precaution.
Since Friday, hundreds of fires have been reported across drought-hit Turkey, fuelled by high winds.
On Monday, more than 50,000 people were evacuated, mostly in the Izmir area but also from the southern province of Hatay, the AFAD disaster management agency said.
Turkey, which was spared the recent heatwaves that gripped the rest of southern Europe, has been battling the effects of a long-term drought brought on by climate change. – AFP
