Turkey’s Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, İbrahim Yumaklı, confirmed in recent hours that the wildfires that broke out on Thursday in the province of Çanakkale, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people and even the temporary closure of the Dardanelles Strait, are now under control after intense efforts by firefighting teams, who worked throughout the night from Friday to Saturday.
According to Turkish media reports, Yumaklı himself announced this morning on his social media profile that the two main wildfires still burning in Çanakkale – specifically in the districts of Bayramiç and in the centre of Çanakkale – were now under control after overnight firefighting efforts, and that cooling operations were continuing.
The fires broke out on Thursday in Sarıcaeli, a village on the outskirts of the provincial capital, and Bayramiç, a district in the south of the province, for reasons that were initially unknown.
In the case of the fire in Sarıcaeli, it started around 1:30 p.m. in an agricultural field and quickly spread to a forest area; the flames spread rapidly, threatening residential areas and forcing the evacuation of numerous people, including those at the Mehmet Akif Ersoy Public Hospital, where several patients had to be transferred to protect them from the smoke.
Subsequently, the authorities announced the arrest of at least four people suspected of being linked to the fire in Sarıcaeli, according to the minister himself. Coincidentally, the other major fire, which broke out near the village of Saçaklı in the Bayramiç district, started in very similar circumstances – a fire in an agricultural field – just four minutes after the previous one, also spreading quickly to a forest area driven by the wind. As a result of this second fire, at least 654 residents of the area had to be evacuated from their homes.
These wildfires also caused major disruption to air and sea traffic passing through this province, which is key to routes between Europe and Asia by air and between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea by sea. Çanakkale Airport had to be temporarily closed to passenger traffic, although it remained open for take-offs and landings of aircraft fighting the forest fires.
Meanwhile, the important Dardanelles Strait, which divides the province of Çanakkale in two, also had to be temporarily closed to maritime traffic in both directions due to low visibility caused by smoke from the wildfires in this region of Turkey.
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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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