Flames are closing in on Turkey’s fourth-largest city as wildfires that have killed at least 14 people continue to ravage the country.
More than 1,500 people have fled their homes and one firefighter has died as overnight fires in the forested mountains surrounding Bursa, in north west Turkey, have spread rapidly.
Flames have scorched 3,000 hectares around the city and more than 1,100 firefighters battled the flames around Bursa, as the highway linking the city to the capital, Ankara, was closed as forests surrounding burned.
A firefighter died from a heart attack while on the job, the city’s mayor, Mustafa Bozbey, said in a statement. The governor’s office stated on Sunday that 1,765 people had been safely evacuated from villages to the north east.
Orhan Saribal, an opposition parliamentarian for the province, described the scene as “an apocalypse.”
By morning, lessening winds have brought some respite to firefighters, who continued their efforts to battle the flames. However, TV footage revealed a barren landscape where farms and pine forests had earlier stood.
Some 14 people have died in recent weeks, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers killed Wednesday in a fire in Eskisehir in western Turkey.
Unseasonably high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds have fuelled the flames that has led to dozens of severe wildfires hitting the country daily since late June. The government declaring two western provinces, Izmir and Bilecik, disaster areas on Friday.
Turkey’s minister of agriculture and forestry İbrahim Yumaklı said fire crews across the country confronted 76 separate blazes Saturday, 28 of which were in forests and 48 in rural areas, and the country’s north west was under the greatest threat, including Karabuk, where wildfires have burned since Tuesday.
Mr Yumaklı said Turkey broken an all-time temperature record on Friday of 50.5C in the southeastern Sirnak. Information published by the country’s General Directorate of Meteorology suggested that temperatures would rise by another 10 degrees, starting Saturday. The highest temperatures for July were seen in 132 other locations.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said late Saturday that prosecutors had investigated fires in 33 provinces since June 26, and that legal action had been taken against 97 suspects.
Minister Yumaklı, shared a message to citizens, telling them that the best way to extinguish fires is to prevent them in the first place.
“As the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, we are on the ground fighting forest fires with our planes, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles in the sky, our forest heroes on duty 24/7 on the ground, our land vehicles, AFAD, the provincial governor’s office, local governments, and non-governmental organizations.
“We are ready, but the best way to extinguish fires—cost-free, problem-free, and without paying any price—is to prevent them from starting.”
