ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Massive wildfires have been raging since Thursday evening across several locations in Turkey’s western Izmir province, with efforts to bring the blaze under control still ongoing. The fires have led to the evacuation of locals from a village and caused significant destruction to forests. Turkish state media Anadolu Agency reported that the fire started on Thursday evening. The province’s Forestry Regional Directorate teams intervened with three planes, nine helicopters, 70 water trucks, 17 water supply vehicles, eight bulldozers, and six ground crews. The fire broke out in Izmir’s Karsiyaka district. Several other fires also broke out in the Kemalpasa and Cesme districts. The reason behind the fires is yet to be determined. “At the moment, there is no major risk. Our efforts are continuing intensively. We have evacuated one village and some houses in the area. As of this morning, there were six fires in our region, and five have been extinguished,” Izmir Governor Suleyman Elban told journalists on Friday. Elban noted that aerial interventions are occasionally halted due to high wind speeds reaching up to 80 kilometers per hour. No casualties have yet been recorded, according to the governor. Another fire broke out on Thursday morning in Canakkale province, destroying around 700 hectares of forests, according to Ibrahim Yumakli, Turkey’s minister of agriculture and forestry. The fire was brought under control on Friday. Wildfires in Turkey during the summer are not a new occurrence. The blazes destroyed close to 7,000 hectares of forests in 2023, and over 8,100 hectares in 2022. The largest wildfire in Turkey’s history, known as Manavgat Wildfire, started in July 2021 and lasted for more than two weeks. A total of 299 forests caught fire all over the country, resulting in eight deaths and over 1,500 people injured.
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