Rescuers in Turkey have evacuated more than 50,000 people, mostly from the western province of Izmir, as firefighters battled a string of wildfires, the AFAD disaster agency said Monday.
The worst blaze began Sunday in Seferihisar, a forested area 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of the resort city of Izmir, spreading rapidly with winds of up to 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour, officials said.
“A total of over 50,000 citizens from 41 settlements have been temporarily relocated to safe areas,” AFAD wrote on X, saying 79 people had been affected by smoke and other fire-related issues, none seriously.
Of that number, 42,300 were evacuated from Seferihisar, where TV footage showed huge areas of flame raging through forested areas, sending vast clouds of black smoke into the sky.
Overnight, around 20 evacuated homes were gutted by the blaze, with only the walls left standing, footage on private TV network NTV showed.
Residents in the seaside village of Urkmez had on Sunday felled trees to create firebreaks and protect their homes as the flames advanced, a witness told AFP.
“Unfortunately, the wind is continuing to blow very strongly,” Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli told reporters on Monday afternoon.
The Turkish State Meteorological Service warned about strong winds over the weekend.
– Flights briefly suspended –
Yumakli said more than 1,000 people had been drafted in to tackle the blaze with four planes, 14 helicopters and 106 fire trucks.
AFAD said another 3,000 residents were evacuated from Manisa, 40 kilometres north of Izmir.
Another 1,500 people were forced out of their homes in the southern Hatay region, where four helicopters, 211 fire engines and 540 firefighters were fighting a blaze some 10 kilometres north of the city of Antakya, the governor said.
Around 850 others were forced to flee from two other wildfires in northwestern Turkey, AFAD said.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on X that one person had been arrested for allegedly starting one of the wildfires in the Izmir area with gasoline.
“The suspect is alleged to have set fire to their own residence, (which) subsequently caused a forest fire,” he wrote, without giving further details.
Since Friday, 263 fires had broken out across Turkey, of which 259 were under control while efforts were ongoing to fight the remaining four, the agriculture and forestry ministry said.
Izmir airport, which temporarily suspended flights on Sunday, resumed operations, Turkish media reported.
Wildfires have ravaged nearly 19,000 hectares of land across Turkey so far this year, according to website of the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
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.
Europe is hit by early heatwave
Health alerts were issued in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Germany. Even the Netherlands, used to a milder climate, issued a warning for high temperatures in the coming days, coupled with high humidity.
“Large parts of Western Europe are experiencing extreme heat and heatwave conditions that are normally observed in July or August, rather than June,” said Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate at the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Temperatures were in some locations 5-10 degrees Celsius warmer than they otherwise should have been at this time of the year, she said.
In France, where temperatures are expected to peak on Tuesday and Wednesday, wildfires broke out on Sunday in the southwestern Aude department, where temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), burning 400 hectares and forcing the evacuation of a campsite and an abbey, authorities said.
The fires were under control but not yet extinguished, authorities said on Monday. Weather service Meteo France put a record 84 of the country’s 101 departments on an orange heatwave alert from Monday until midweek.
WESTERN EUROPE BAKES
From spectators queuing at the All England Club for the Wimbledon tennis tournament to tourists at the Colosseum in Rome and Seville in Spain, people sweltered in the heat.
“It’s about 20 degrees warmer than I’m used to and I’m sunburnt all over,” said tennis fan Scott Henderson, attending Wimbledon from Scotland.
Spain is on course for its hottest June on record, the national meteorological service AEMET said.
“Over the next few days, at least until Thursday, intense heat will continue in much of Spain,” said Ruben del Campo, a spokesperson for the weather agency.
In Seville, southern Spain, where global leaders gathered for a United Nations conference, temperatures hit 42 C.
“It’s awful,” municipal worker Bernabe Rufo said as he cleaned a fountain. “We need to be looking for shade constantly.” The top temperature in the country was registered at 43.7 C in El Granado.
In Italy, the Health Ministry issued heatwave red alerts for 16 cities, including Rome and Milan. The Lombardy region, part of Italy’s northern industrial heartland, is planning to ban open-air work in the hottest part of the day, heeding a request from trade unions, its president said.
CONSUMERS URGED TO LIMIT WATER USE
In Germany too, heat warnings were in place across large parts of western and southwestern regions on Monday, where temperatures climbed to up to 34 C. Authorities appealed to consumers to limit their use of water.
The heatwave has lowered water levels on the Rhine River, hampering shipping and raising freight costs for cargo owners, commodity traders said. German and French baseload power prices for Tuesday surged as the heatwave led to increased demand for cooling.
Heat can affect health in various ways, and experts are most concerned about older people and babies, as well as outdoor labourers and people struggling economically.
Globally, extreme heat kills up to 480,000 people annually, surpassing the combined toll from floods, earthquakes and hurricanes, and poses growing risks to infrastructure, the economy and healthcare systems, Swiss Re said earlier this month.
Scientists say the main cause of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. Last year was the planet’s hottest on record.
SOURCE: AFP, AP, REUTERS AND AGENCIES
from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/9JYD0nq
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