The Prague Post - Two dead as wildfires rage near Turkish resort of Izmir

EUR -
AED 4.321861
AFN 81.200765
ALL 97.616692
AMD 452.43926
ANG 2.106058
AOA 1079.140893
ARS 1449.265402
AUD 1.789699
AWG 2.121212
AZN 2.00124
BAM 1.951798
BBD 2.376427
BDT 144.383923
BGN 1.957717
BHD 0.443659
BIF 3459.841359
BMD 1.176817
BND 1.498627
BOB 8.133322
BRL 6.365518
BSD 1.176986
BTN 100.353213
BWP 15.548117
BYN 3.851801
BYR 23065.609063
BZD 2.364252
CAD 1.59757
CDF 3395.116416
CHF 0.934775
CLF 0.028452
CLP 1091.838782
CNY 8.43236
CNH 8.437176
COP 4695.498988
CRC 594.181556
CUC 1.176817
CUP 31.185645
CVE 110.473663
CZK 24.631924
DJF 209.143853
DKK 7.461118
DOP 70.432185
DZD 152.34005
EGP 58.082088
ERN 17.652252
ETB 159.399244
FJD 2.630423
FKP 0.863906
GBP 0.861295
GEL 3.200863
GGP 0.863906
GHS 12.179656
GIP 0.863906
GMD 84.144119
GNF 10186.525934
GTQ 9.049443
GYD 246.245044
HKD 9.236117
HNL 30.808946
HRK 7.534924
HTG 154.54309
HUF 398.787318
IDR 19097.382851
ILS 3.917156
IMP 0.863906
INR 100.505565
IQD 1541.629994
IRR 49573.407255
ISK 142.383193
JEP 0.863906
JMD 188.034412
JOD 0.834402
JPY 170.30184
KES 152.400959
KGS 102.91226
KHR 4731.980293
KMF 491.909358
KPW 1059.166398
KRW 1603.871873
KWD 0.359284
KYD 0.980889
KZT 611.565907
LAK 25366.285986
LBP 105442.784641
LKR 353.105912
LRD 235.952961
LSL 20.676409
LTL 3.474834
LVL 0.711845
LYD 6.330676
MAD 10.563401
MDL 19.820356
MGA 5219.182352
MKD 61.518559
MMK 2470.381248
MNT 4219.220358
MOP 9.516086
MRU 46.727589
MUR 52.803666
MVR 18.123811
MWK 2043.545394
MXN 21.949093
MYR 4.969106
MZN 75.269392
NAD 20.676656
NGN 1805.837446
NIO 43.247927
NOK 11.831439
NPR 160.564742
NZD 1.936239
OMR 0.452489
PAB 1.176986
PEN 4.184747
PGK 4.936724
PHP 66.426624
PKR 334.156977
PLN 4.2421
PYG 9383.757423
QAR 4.284319
RON 5.058313
RSD 117.150945
RUB 93.057992
RWF 1687.555275
SAR 4.413225
SBD 9.811033
SCR 16.585264
SDG 706.684128
SEK 11.264375
SGD 1.499447
SHP 0.924793
SLE 26.41966
SLL 24677.263968
SOS 672.554902
SRD 43.759929
STD 24357.731547
SVC 10.298881
SYP 15300.713136
SZL 20.676759
THB 38.168889
TJS 11.410901
TMT 4.130627
TND 3.398057
TOP 2.756221
TRY 46.863869
TTD 7.974647
TWD 34.047784
TZS 3096.839276
UAH 49.144922
UGX 4222.341557
USD 1.176817
UYU 47.153306
UZS 14833.775534
VES 128.830248
VND 30832.59987
VUV 139.981303
WST 3.061526
XAF 654.61463
XAG 0.032006
XAU 0.000354
XCD 3.180406
XDR 0.813634
XOF 654.900069
XPF 119.331742
YER 284.966467
ZAR 20.612676
ZMK 10592.766693
ZMW 28.394773
ZWL 378.934526
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Two dead as wildfires rage near Turkish resort of Izmir
Two dead as wildfires rage near Turkish resort of Izmir / Photo: HANDOUT - DHA (Demiroren News Agency)/AFP

Two dead as wildfires rage near Turkish resort of Izmir

An elderly man and a forestry worker died on Thursday in wildfires in Turkey, as firefighters battled high winds fanning two blazes in the western province of Izmir, lawmakers said.

Text size:

Turkey, which was spared the recent heatwaves that gripped the rest of southern Europe, has been battling the effects of a long-term drought brought on by climate change.

One elderly victim died in a fire near Odemis, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Izmir, in one of three villages evacuated in the area, an opposition lawmaker told Halk TV.

"The village was evacuated but an elderly, bedridden patient could not be saved," said Salih Uzun, a lawmaker in Izmir for the main opposition CHP party.

A forest worker in the same area died as he battled the blazes, the country's agriculture minister Ibrahim Yumakli said on X.

Another major fire was raging near Cesme, some 80 kilometres west of Izmir, which began late on Wednesday and forced the evacuation of a further three villages.

"The biggest problem is the wind speed of up to 85 kilometres per hour (53 miles per hour) which is causing the fire to spread very quickly. And it constantly changes direction," Izmir governor Suleyman Elban said.

The highway linking Izmir to Cesme temporarily closed Thursday afternoon, but was reopened in the evening, Elban said on X.

In both places, a total of "nine planes, 22 helicopters and 1,100 (fire trucks and other) vehicles are intensively fighting the fires", the governor told reporters.

He said both fires in the province, as well as those that began at the weekend and were brought under control, "were caused by power cables".

- Fires contained in Antalya, Istanbul -

Earlier, two other fires broke out -- one in the southern resort of Antalya and the second in Istanbul's Sultan Gazi forest.

They were quickly contained by firefighters, officials said.

Footage from Antalya showed flames raging in a forested area near a residential area in Lara, a popular tourist resort with many large hotels, but a municipal official told AFP it was under control.

Since Friday, hundreds of fires have been reported across drought-hit Turkey, fuelled by high winds.

On Monday, more than 50,000 people were evacuated, mostly in the Izmir area but also from the southern province of Hatay, the AFAD disaster management agency said.

According to figures on the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) website, there have been 90 wildfires in Turkey so far this year that have ravaged more than 35,082 hectares (86,689 acres) of land.

The figure on Monday was nearly 15,000 hectares destroyed in 65 fires.

Citing forestry ministry figures, meteorologist Ismail Kucuk told AFP that "90 percent of forest fires" were due to man-made causes.

Power cables posed a risk if they were not properly maintained, said Kucuk, secretary general of Turkey's chamber of metrology engineers.

In some regions, cables broke easily because they had not been maintained since electricity distribution companies had been privatised, he said.

Experts say human-driven climate change is causing more frequent and more intense wildfires and other natural disasters, and have warned Turkey to take measures to tackle the problem.

R.Rous--TPP