Forest fires mostly under control as Turkey strives to recover
A small number of the forest fires that started Wednesday and Thursday, mostly in Turkey's south, are still raging Friday while dozens of others are “under control,” authorities said.
Fires erupting one after the other are usual during forest fire season when temperatures are at their highest, but the damage was unprecedented this time, with flames devastating entire villages. They raised suspicions that the PKK terrorist group, which was involved in similar fires in the past, might be behind them, though investigations are still continuing.
The wildfires were particularly damaging in the vacation resort towns of Antalya and Muğla and quickly spread due to strong winds. Mersin, Adana and Osmaniye, three neighboring provinces in the south, also witnessed massive fires since mid-week.
The death toll from the fires rose to four late Thursday when a young man trying to aid firefighters died after getting caught in the middle of a fire in Marmaris, a vacation resort town in the southwestern province of Muğla. The other three deaths reported on Thursday were residents of Antalya who were unable to escape from fast-spreading fire in villages.
The wildfire that started in Antalya’s Manavgat on Wednesday left a trail of destruction in its path, burning down houses, especially in villages. It grew by Thursday when another blaze broke out in Akseki district neighboring Manavgat, further fanning the flames. Strong winds are challenging the extinguishing efforts carried out by firefighters on the ground and from planes and helicopters.
A delegation of ministers has been in Antalya since the first fires started. Ministers assured the public that fires were largely under control at a press conference in the province on Friday. The Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli said 57 out of 71 fires were "brought under control."
Pakdemirli said the fire that broke out in Marmaris caused "minor damage" and was not a threat to residential areas. He noted that the flames "were heading towards the sea." Footage and photos from the town showed thick smoke and flames rising over a forest behind an area dotted with hotels on the shore. Similar scenes were also witnessed in Bodrum, another popular vacation resort, where flames reached trees behind a large seaside hotel. Tourists in the hotel were evacuated via boats.
Pakdemirli also said that law enforcement agencies and the judiciary were launching investigations into the causes of the fire and they would make statements based on the course of the investigations. In the Marmaris fire, two children accused of starting the blaze were brought to a police station to testify. The children told police that they were burning old books in a forest when flames started to spread and they could not put them out and fled. Turkey's Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun tweeted on Thursday that "those responsible will have to account for the attacks against nature and forests." Following the fires, several provinces ordered a ban on visitors to the forests.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters Friday that the investigations would show whether the fires were deliberate, noting that intelligence units and the Interior Ministry were looking into the causes of the fires. "This is not something we will ignore. After all, these are fires that, although broke out in different places, happened almost at the same time, from Manavgat to Marmaris and Bodrum," he said.
Minister Pakdemirli also dismissed allegations that Turkey did not have enough planes to fight the fires. He said helicopters were more efficient in containing the fires. "It is not important what you have in the air. What matters is their capacity of dumping enough water to the ground to put out the fires," he said. He also said burned areas would soon be open for forestation again, noting that the public sought sapling and tree donations in the aftermath of the blazes.
Erdoğan said 45 helicopters were dispatched to the fire-hit areas and the number of airplanes intervening in the blazes rose to six on Friday. He said they were also receiving planes from Russia and Ukraine, and Azerbaijan would also send an amphibious plane, which is more effective in handling forest fires than regular planes. He said unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were also deployed to monitor the fires. "We have 1,080 fire trucks and 280 water tankers in affected areas, along with 2,270 'first response vehicles' and 660 bulldozers and other heavy equipment. 10,550 people, from firefighters to forest preservation officers are working on the ground. We have positive progress (in terms of extinguishing the fires)," he said
(c) Daily Sabah
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