There is no end in sight to the forest fires in Turkey and southern Europe. On the contrary: Strong winds could worsen the situation in the next few days.
Athens / Istanbul / Rome – Fire fighters, rescue workers, military and volunteers in southern Europe and Turkey are desperately fighting the fire.
In Greece, 92 forest fires spread across the country within 24 hours. In Turkey, the forestry department reported 180 fires on Thursday, 12 of which are not yet under control. According to this, a good three new fires break out every hour, often in remote regions, but also in the vicinity of settlements and people who have to flee headlong from the flames.
The Greek fire brigade had just brought a huge forest fire under control on Thursday, which threatened ancient Olympia on the Peloponnese peninsula, and things continued elsewhere. On the second largest Greek island of Evia, which is heavily forested, numerous new fires ignited on Thursday. Church bells rang the alarm, villages were evacuated, local residents tried to cut aisles with tractors and chainsaws to prevent the flames from moving.
During an inspection at the Olympia fire, the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that he would deploy more of the military. The soldiers should follow the situation from the air with drones and discover new sources of fire in good time. They are also supposed to support the fire brigade with excavators and other heavy equipment and transport water to the sources of the fire in tankers.
Fires in Turkish tourist regions
In Turkey, too, the fires raged on in the tourist regions on the Mediterranean. For days, the rescue workers have not been able to get major fires in the provinces of Antalya and Mugla under control. Almost 12,000 houses and more than 36,000 people were evacuated in Mugla alone, spokesmen for local authorities said. According to official information, 2000 houses have been damaged so far.
The fire has already charred large areas of land. According to expert estimates, at least 100,000 hectares of forest and fields fell victim to the flames, and eight people were killed. Farmers complained in the Turkish media that they had lost their house, land and cattle. Tourists were sometimes evacuated from holiday resorts by water.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s office is investigating a campaign on social media. Under the hashtag #HelpTurkey, users asked for international help in the fight against the fire. Since the fires started last week, criticism of the equipment of the emergency services has been raised again and again. The state news agency Anadolu reported that it is now being investigated, among other things, for “generating worry, fear and panic” in the population and inciting the people to hatred and enmity.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan again denied allegations in an interview on Wednesday evening and accused the opposition of spreading “terror lies”. Erdogan said that there are now 20 fire fighting planes and 51 helicopters in use. According to official information, support comes from Croatia, Spain, Ukraine, Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan.
In Italy, the emergency services continued to fight the flames on Thursday. Sicily and Calabria, among others, were affected. Several fire-fighting planes are in use in the provinces of Messina and Palermo, the fire brigade said on Twitter. Environment Minister Roberto Cingolani said on Thursday that around 70 percent of the fires were caused by human misconduct. Then there are the consequences of climate change. The civil defense in Sicily predicted the highest fire risk level for the north and east again for Thursday.
Second highest alert level in Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, the second highest alert level, orange, was declared on Thursday for 24 of the 28 regions – including the capital Sofia with around 1.5 million inhabitants. The two major fires in the south of the Balkans were initially brought under control, as the Bulgarian media reported on Thursday. However, two forest workers were killed and another was badly burned. dpa
