Firefighters were battling several wildfires across Turkiye and Cyprus on Thursday, as blazes burned through large areas of land, prompting evacuations of towns and villages. In central Turkiye, 10 firefighters lost their lives while tackling the fires during an intense Mediterranean heatwave.
At least six separate wildfires were burning across Turkiye, and Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli warned that strong winds and blazing heat were creating extremely dangerous conditions.
Late on Wednesday, Yumakli said 10 firefighters were killed while battling a fire in the central Eskisehir province, adding that 14 others were injured. Fanned by strong winds, the fire later spread to another central province, Afyonkarahisar.
In the northwestern province of Bilecik, fires raged for a fourth straight day, as firefighters struggled to contain them.
Residents were evacuated from fire-threatened areas of all three provinces, though some residents were later allowed to return to areas in Bilecik that were declared safe.
“They couldn’t intervene. There is no decent road, forests are thick and it’s rocky. Helicopters don’t work at night, and because they don’t work, they couldn’t intervene,” said Cemil Karadag, a resident of the village of Selcik in Bilecik.
“It engulfed our village from two or three sides … It spread very quickly with the effect of the wind, but, thank God, (the centre of) our village wasn’t damaged that much.”
In the Black Sea province of Sakarya, a wildfire erupted even as firefighters worked to contain another nearby. A key highway was shut due to the blaze, while some areas were evacuated.
Another fire in the neighbouring province of Karabuk, where the UNESCO World Heritage City of Safranbolu is located, quickly grew and led to 10 villages being evacuated. A sixth blaze raged in the western province of Manisa.
‘Sheer Hell’
On the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, firefighters battled for a second day to control a massive wildfire, which engulfed mountain villages north of the city of Limassol.
Two people were found dead in their car, trapped by the blaze which started on Wednesday. Scores of homes were destroyed as people fled a towering wall of flames overnight.
Although the fire’s cause was not immediately known, authorities said they would be looking into the possibility of arson.
“It was sheer hell,” said Father Michalis, a Greek Orthodox priest, who was forced to evacuate from Lofou village.
After subsiding early Thursday, authorities were struggling to contain flare-ups around midday that were being stoked by strong winds.
“When dawn came we saw a catastrophe of biblical proportions,” said Kostas Hatzikonstantinou, who struggled to maintain composure as he stood outside his home, hollowed out by the fire which razed his community on Thursday morning.
‘Unspeakable Tragedy’
“It’s an unspeakable tragedy for everyone … Unfortunately, we’ll no longer have this paradise that we enjoyed for so many years,” he said.
Cypriot government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said the authorities were focusing on fully leveraging “all ground and air forces” to control the blaze.
“We are facing an unprecedented situation,” he said.
In addition to air assets from Spain, Egypt and Jordan, Israel has also said it would send assistance, he added. Aircraft from the British military bases on Cyprus were also assisting in the effort, while the EU said it had mobilised two aircraft to help operations.
Ersin Tatar, president of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognised only by Turkiye and has been split from the island’s south, said his government was ready to assist as well.
Although heatwaves and wildfires are common in the region, their impact on human life along with the scale of destruction have become more pronounced in recent years due to shifting weather patterns.
(With inputs from Reuters)
