Forestry and Agriculture Minister İbrahim Yumaklı announced Monday morning (August 19) that wildfires burning in five provinces have been brought under control after several days of burning across the country.
In a morning announcement on social media, Yumaklı said that wildfires had been either extinguished or brought under control by local firefighters in the following provinces: Manisa, Uşak, Aydın, İzmir, and Muğla.
The fires in İzmir had affected the province’s Karşıkaya and Bayraklı districts and burned for approximately 62 hours before being extinguished by authorities. In the province’s Menderes district, another fire was reportedly still hot but under control.
Bolu’s Göynük district, Uşak’s Eşme district, Aydın’s Bozdoğan district, as well as Muğla’s Yatağan and Ula districts were also affected by fires over the weekend.In Karabük, a northern province near Turkey’s Black Sea coast, another fire burned over the weekend before being successfully extinguished by authorities.
According to AFAD, Turkey’s disaster-response agency, approximately 3500 residents have been evacuated from their homes due to the recent wildfires.
Forestry Minister Yumaklı also announced that the ministry had declared a state of alarm until September 15 due to the ongoing threat of wildfires in the country.
On Saturday (August 17), Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that seven individuals in İzmir province had been taken into custody in connection with the wildfire outbreak.
Turkey’s growing wildfire threat
Like many other countries in the Mediterranean region, Turkey has been increasingly affected by wildfires in recent years. A particularly serious fire season in the summer of 2021 hit the country’s southwest coast, most notably the provinces of Antalya and Muğla, which are host to a large number of tourists to Turkey. The country’s eastern Tunceli province was also affected by burns during the same wildfire season.
By Leo Kendrick
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