The first major forest fire of "fire season" gripped the southwestern Aegean town of Marmaris late Tuesday. Firefighters struggled to put out the flames that spread across a forest in the Bördübet neighborhood since the blaze broke out at around 8 p.m. local time.
The cause of the fire in the town located in Muğla province is still unknown. The flames spread in a short time due to winds.
The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said 1,393 personnel, including 592 employees from the General Directorate of Forestry, responded to the fire as well as 338 vehicles and 35 pieces of construction equipment from various institutions and organizations.
Agriculture and Forestry Minister Vahit Kirişçi and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu inspected the fire-hit area from the air. "It's not a fire that should worry us much, given the current circumstances. But the position we are in right now is of course a bit critical," Kirişçi said after the inspections.
The darkness challenged firefighters battling flames on the land with limited aerial support. When the sun rose, some 20 helicopters and 14 airplanes started dousing the flames in an area covering about 250 hectares (617 acres). Some 30 residences near the epicenter of the fire were evacuated as a precaution.
The site of the fire was a sparsely populated area, far from the busy streets of Marmaris, one of the most popular towns for holidaymakers in Muğla, along with Bodrum. Both towns suffered from devastating wildfires last year, losing a large amount of land to flames. As a matter of fact, last summer's blazes were the most intense in Turkey on record, a European Union atmosphere monitor said last year, adding that the Mediterranean had become a wildfire hot spot. Human-induced climate change is making heat waves more likely and more severe, scientists say.
The blaze hit a red pine forest that includes an area that was declared a wildlife preservation site in 2020. Dr. Yasin İlemin, a wildlife expert from Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, told Demirören News Agency (DHA) on Wednesday that the fire gutted about 20% of the protected area where caracals endemic to southwestern Turkey live. "It is also the only red pine forest where brown bears live. There are also rare sightings of wolves," he said. İlemin and fellow researchers rushed to the scene after wildlife cameras they set up in the forest recorded the fast-spreading flames. "The flames are heading from west to the east. Birds and mammals living here sensed it and started fleeing. We have seen brown bears also fleeing," he said.
In another statement to the press on Wednesday, Minister Kirişçi said the fire was largely under control but there was still a possibility that it may expand again due to winds. "Winds affect the extinguishing work but we are in a better place in terms of humidity and temperature," he said. Minister Soylu, on the other hand, criticized the "evil" being spread on social media over the fire, denouncing what authorities have called a disinformation campaign that alleges the response to the fire was inadequate. "We have tens of helicopters, planes and fire trucks here. People did not sleep a minute so that they could fight the flames. But on social media, there is this hysteria, posts by shameless people," he lamented.
On Wednesday afternoon, the flames headed to Okluk Bay after winds aggravated them, with black plumes of smoke engulfing the area again.
Mehmet Nadir Yağcı, the Muğla chief prosecutor, said an investigation had been launched into the cause of the fire and that they were "looking into all angles." Forest fires are often the result of the reckless actions of people who accidentially leave behind inflammable materials in the forest, often after picnicking. In some cases, however, the PKK terrorist group has been behind the arson that has led to fires.
Also on Wednesday, a smaller fire broke out in a forest in the Seydikemer district of Muğla, some 150 kilometers away from Marmaris. Firefighters were dispatched to the area where strong winds prevailed.
On Tuesday, firefighters had managed to put out flames in a red pine forest and a marsh in the Kaş district of Muğla's neighboring Antalya province.
The country suffered from more than 2,105 forest fires last year that ravaged vast swathes of forests across Turkey. The fires that gutted hundreds of hectares of forests between July and August were the worst in recent memory to hit Antalya and Muğla, two neighboring Mediterranean provinces. They killed at least eight people, devastated villages and claimed the lives of a large number of animals. Soaring temperatures, low humidity and strong winds prolonged the fires, which prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people, particularly in villages near the epicenter of fires. Several countries had dispatched planes to help the extinguishing efforts. This year, the country reinforced its aerial fleet with 16 more helicopters and 17 airplanes, along with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for timely detection and response to the fires.
