The intensity of the Turkey wildfires has grown as the week continues, with more than 50,000 people having to flee their homes from across İzmir and surrounding provinces
Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes as ferocious wildfires rage across Turkey.
For the past three days, forest fires whipped up by robust winds have wreaked havoc in İzmir, which sits in the west of the country in an area loved by British tourists. Those flying into the region have captured videos of the sky burning orange above the city of 2.9 million, with great plumes of smoke billowing up off the tinder-box dry countryside.
The intensity of the fires has grown as the week continues, with more than 50,000 people having to flee their homes from across İzmir and surrounding provinces.
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In Sakarya, 230 people have had to leave behind two neighborhoods, while seven villages have been deserted by 609 people in Bilecik. İzmir’s Seferihisar district is the worst-impacted. There, 42,300 have had to flee an area that is made up of 80% summer houses, CNN Türk reported.
Helicopter pilots and on-the-ground firefighters are working side-by-side with teams of citizens who are determined to save as much of their land and as many of their homes as possible. They used tractors with water trailers and helicopters carrying water to douse the charred hillsides.
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry İbrahim Yumaklı said that 342 forest fires have broken out since Friday.
Mr Yumaklı said on Monday that the blaze was fanned overnight by winds reaching 40-50 km/h in Kuyucak and Doğanbey areas of İzmir. The first fire broke out on Sunday between the districts of Seferihisar and Menderes in İzmir, spreading rapidly due to winds of up to 117 km/h, according to Governor Süleyman Elban.
Residents in the village of Ürkmez were forced to cut trees to create firebreaks and protect their homes.
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On Sunday, no flights could land at or take off from Adnan Menderes Airport, which serves the coastal city of İzmir, for several hours. The airport’s departure board showed all flights due to leave on Sunday evening were either suspended or canceled.
Since then, the airport has been running as normal, with the departures and arrivals boards today showing no delays or cancellations.
The area was also hit by wildfires last year, as were many of Turkey’s other coastal areas. It is likely that this will become a more and more regular occurrence in the country, as climate change increases the irregularity of weather patterns and raises temperatures.
Turkey is not the only European country impacted by blazes this week. Right now, a sweltering ‘heat dome’ is sitting across swathes of Europe including France, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey, with forecasts from European meteorologists warning that more roasting days are on the horizon.
“Extreme heat is no longer a rare event — it has become the new normal,” declared U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres via Twitter from Seville, Spain, where the mercury was projected to soar to a blistering 42 Celsius by Monday afternoon.
Echoing his oft-repeated plea for dramatic measures to curb climate change, Guterres proclaimed: “The planet is getting hotter & more dangerous — no country is immune.”