A major forest fire in the province of Eskişehir -in NW Turkey– has claimed the lives of 10 people who died in the last few hours after they were trapped while working on the front line of the fire trying to stop the advance of the blaze, driven by temperatures of up to 38ºC and winds that have reached 45 kilometres per hour in the region.
According to Turkish media such as Hürriyet, the tragedy occurred during the fire that broke out at midday today in the Seyitgazi district, later spreading to the neighbouring province of Afyon; by the afternoon, the flames had already consumed 1,500 hectares of pine and oak forest, forcing the evacuation of some 1,200 people from villages in the area.
Despite the intense efforts to extinguish the fire, in which hundreds of people have been working on the ground supported by 10 helicopters, 5 planes and 30 trucks, the fire has not yet been brought under control, and the wind and the dryness of the vegetation together with the abundant presence of pine trees contributed to the rapid spread of the flames, complicating the extinguishing efforts.
The fire surrounded them and left them trapped
It was in the midst of this dangerous situation that the fire surrounded a group of 24 people due to a sudden change of wind direction, including 19 forestry workers and 5 members of the Search and Rescue Team (AKUT). 10 of them – 5 forestry workers and the 5 rescuers – died, while the rest could be rescued although with injuries: 3 remain in critical condition in Eskişehir City Hospital due to severe burns and smoke inhalation.
“Unfortunately we have lost 5 forestry workers and 5 AKUT members,” Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumaklı said in a statement, referring to them as ‘martyrs’– a term normally used for military or security forces personnel killed in the line of duty. The deceased were working on the same frontline of the fire and were responsible for creating firebreaks and directly fighting the flames. Yumaklı noted that, today alone, 9 major fires have broken out across the country.
Turkey is facing a major wave of forest fires this year. So far this year there have already been about a hundred fires that have burned some 50,000 hectares, three times more than the area burned since 2020, also causing several casualties such as those caused by the fire in Izmir. Experts attribute this increase in the number and virulence of fires to drought and heat waves caused by climate change, especially in the Mediterranean region.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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