More than 50,000 people have been evacuated as Turkish firefighters battle a series of wildfires, with the vast majority of evacuations from the western province of İzmir, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said.
“A total of over 50,000 people from 41 settlements have been temporarily relocated to safe areas,” AFAD wrote on X, saying most of them were from fires near the western city of İzmir.
The fire in İzmir began around midday on Sunday in the Seferihisar district, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of İzmir, fueled by high winds of up to 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour.
Around 20 homes, which had been evacuated as a precaution, were gutted by the blaze, with only the walls left standing, footage from the private NTV channel showed.
“The wind intensity has decreased, but it could pick up. It reached 65 kph overnight, which made the work difficult, but at daybreak the aerial firefighting teams resumed their work,” Agriculture and Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumaklı told reporters on Monday.
He said more than 1,000 people had been recruited to fight the blaze along with four planes, 14 helicopters and 106 firetrucks.
Four villages and two neighborhoods had been evacuated as a precaution, and 21 people had sustained light injuries from smoke or other fire-related reasons.
Yumaklı said firefighters had been battling 77 fires that erupted on Sunday, fueled by “very intense winds” which had grounded aerial firefighting teams in the Izmir region due to “the risk of crashing.”
Of that number, only a third were in forested areas, he said.
Since June 1, firefighters across Turkey have battled 1,459 fires, of which 569 were in forested areas and 890 elsewhere, the minister said.
The airport in İzmir, which temporarily suspended flights on Sunday, resumed operations, Turkish media reported.
© Agence France-Presse