Over 70 wildfires have broken out this week in provinces on Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean coasts as well as inland areas.
A wildfire that broke out Wednesday in Manavgat, in Antalya province, and was fanned by strong winds and scorching temperatures, was largely contained, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said. But another fire that started overnight and swept through the district of Akseki, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north, kept firefighters engaged.
The wildfire disaster comes as a wretched blow to a tourism industry that was already on its knees, decimated by the coronavirus crisis but attempting to stage at least a partial recovery in the midsummer months. The Guardian, meanwhile, reported late on July 30 that the heat intensity of the wildfires in Turkey measured with satellite data on July 29 was four times higher than anything on record for the nation.
Conditions there and at the sites of dozens of other blazes throughout the country were tinder dry. Turkey’s 60-year-old temperature record was broken last week in the southeastern town of Cizre. The temperature was registered 49.1C.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said there are ongoing investigations and that the allegations surrounding the possibility of arsons were not “ignorable.”
While Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told reporters that the public has some suspicions as to who started the fires, Director of Communications Fahrettin Altun said comprehensive investigations have been launched. “Those responsible for the crime against the nature and forests will be held accountable as soon as possible,” Altun said.
After deadly heatwaves in the Americas, floods in Europe and China, and fires in Siberia, the scenes of destruction in Turkey add to concerns about the growing ferocity of extreme weather in a climate-disrupted world.
