General
Firefighters continue to battle hundreds of wildfires in Turkey
Portugal has also sent a special task force to Madeira to help fight a fire burning on the island since Wednesday.
Wildfires have continued to blaze across western Turkey for a fourth straight day on Sunday, exacerbated by high winds and warm temperatures, authorities said.
More than 130 fires have erupted across the country in the past week, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate. Most have been brought under control, but eight major fires continued in a number of provinces including Izmir, Aydin, Manisa, Karabuk and Bolu.
Thousands of firefighters were tackling the blazes on land and from the air, with dozens of aircraft and hundreds of vehicles aiding in the emergency response.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from the affected areas, but there have been no reported casualties, according to Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli, who spoke to reporters on Saturday as he toured the affected provinces. Yumakli cited low humidity, high winds and high temperatures as exacerbating factors.
The General Directorate of Forestry warned people not to light fires outside for the next 10 days because of the weather conditions across western Turkey, warning of a 70% greater risk of wildfires. Firefighters extinguished on Friday a blaze in Canakkale province that threatened World War I memorials and graves at the Gallipoli battle site.
At the peninsula where Ottoman troops beat back an Allied landing in a yearlong campaign in 1915, the flames reached Canterbury Cemetery, where soldiers from New Zealand are interred. Images of the site in northwest Turkey showed soot-blackened gravestones in a scorched garden looking out over the Aegean Sea.
Meanwhile, authorities detained four people in Bolu in connection with the fires, two of whom were arrested and two released.
In June, a fire spread through settlements in southeast Turkey, killing 11 people and leaving dozens of others requiring medical treatment.
Portugal fighting blaze on Madeira island
Lisbon is sending a special force of 80 firefighters to the Autonomous Region of Madeira to fight a fire that has been raging for three consecutive days.
“Tthe Regional Government announces that all the necessary logistics are currently underway to allow 80 members of the Special Firefighters‘ Force to arrive in Madeira in the next few hours,” read a note sent to the press and quoted by Lusa news agency.
The fire broke out on Wednesday morning in Serra de Água, in the municipality of Ribeira Brava, and spread to neighbouring parishes, leading to the evacuation of residents for safety reasons.
According to Madeira’s Regional Secretary for Health and Civil Protection, “around 50 families have received clinical, social and psychological support” after being evacuated from their homes due to the approaching flames.
According to Renascença radio, 54 operatives are on the ground, supported by 18 vehicles and the helicopter of the Regional Civil Protection Service of Madeira, as well as members of the PSP and the Institute of Forestry and Nature Conservation.
