Turkey’s Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, İbrahim Yumaklı, announced this morning that in the last few hours significant progress has been made in fire containment efforts in several regions of the country, as a result of which the wildfires that remained active in the provinces of Çanakkale, Edirne, Hatay, Manisa and Izmir can be considered under control.
As reported by Turkish media such as Anatolia news agency, Yumaklı shared through his social media profile the latest situation on the active forest fires in several provinces, announcing that as a result of the work of the extinguishing teams, the fires in Dikili district (Izmir province), Mudurnu (Bolu), Ayvacık and Ezine (Çanakkale), Enez (Edirne), Yayladağı (Hatay) and Şehzadeler (Manisa) “have been brought completely under control“.
Yumaklı said that work to cool the ground is continuing to prevent the fire from rekindling. He also said that the fire in Göksun district in the southeastern province of Kahramanmaraş is “mostly under control”, while the wildfire in Soma district (Manisa province) has been reduced in strength. The wild fires in Dardanos (Çanakkale) and Karaburun (Izmir) have also been largely contained.
The fire is still raging in Kepez, Çanakkale
One of the active wildfires of most concern at the moment is the one still burning for second day in a row in Kepez, less than 10 kilometres south of the city of Çanakkale, which has spread rapidly driven by strong winds forcing the evacuation of more than 2,000 people by land and sea, while at least 77 people had to be treated in hospitals for smoke poisoning.
The firefighting force deployed in this northwestern region of Turkey includes 10 aircraft, nine helicopters, 75 fire engines, 10 bulldozers, 127 other vehicles, and some 760 personnel.
The fire raged and burned several homes and vehicles, forcing emergency crews to intervene quickly to evacuate dozens of residents surrounded by the blaze, including a total of 348 people who had to be evacuated by sea by the coast guard. The governor of Çanakkale, Ömer Toraman, reported this morning that the flames are no longer threatening residential areas.
Besides Çanakkale, the wildfires also forced the evacuation of local residents in the western Turkish province of Manisa, where a suspected arsonist was arrested in connection with one of the forest fires. A further 2,700 people were evacuated as a result of the wildfire in Edirne province in the Thrace region of Turkey, with 15 of them hospitalised after suffering poisoning from fire, which also damaged at least four homes.
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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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