Wildfires that broke out yesterday in the Çeşme and Ödemiş districts of Izmir province in western Turkey continue to burn out of control and have already killed at least one person. Meanwhile, thousands of people have been evacuated in Crete, Greece, after a large fire broke out in the east of the island.
On the Çeşme peninsula, off the coast of Izmir, the fire that broke out yesterday at noon in the area of Ildır – which the governor of the province Süleyman Elban has attributed to a power line – has spread rapidly due to the wind, forcing the evacuation of several neighbourhoods in the area including Ilıca, Germiyan, Nohutalan, as well as the closure of the motorway connecting Çeşme to the city of Izmir, after the flames reached the road.
Efforts to contain the fire are also continuing in the Ödemiş district, east of Izmir city, where a forest fire that started yesterday in the Tosunlar neighbourhood has spread to residential areas; here, efforts to fight the blaze are hampered by winds reaching 60 kilometres per hour. The Ödemiş fire also claimed one fatality, according to Turkish media reports, after the blaze engulfed several houses and, after the flames were extinguished, firefighters found the lifeless body of an 80-year-old man in one of the burnt houses.
Turkey’s Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, İbrahim Yumaklı, announced that the fires in the Seferihisar and Menderes districts of Izmir, as well as in Akhisar, Kula and Saruhanlı (Manisa) and Vezirhan (Bilecik), have been brought under control after several days of efforts; Yumaklı also reported that there has been significant progress in extinguishing the wildfires raging in the districts of Antioch (Antakya, in Hatay) and Ahmetli (Manisa).
Thousands evacuated in Greece
Meanwhile, thousands of people have also had to be evacuated in neighbouring Greece, where hundreds of firefighters were battling on Thursday a huge blaze on the island of Crete that has burned forest and olive groves. There, as in Turkey, strong winds and dry terrain due to a particularly hot summer have been key factors in the uncontrolled spread of the flames.
The fire broke out yesterday afternoon near the village of Achlia, on the southeast coast of Crete, and has spread to mountainous and wooded areas, splitting into three active fronts which are now located in Achlia, Ferma and Skinokapsala, according to local authorities, who have ordered mass evacuations: according to some media reports, up to 5,000 people have been evacuated by the fires on the island, mostly foreign tourists staying in hotels and tourist apartments in the 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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