Forest fires that broke out in two locations early Monday were taken under control after 12 hours, local authorities in a southern Turkish town said. Villagers had alerted the firefighters when flames erupted in two parts of a forest in Dörtyol, a town in the southern Turkish province of Hatay, about an hour after midnight.

Local forestry services and firefighters from Hatay municipality rushed to the scene. Their extinguishing efforts were hampered by strong winds. Winds also blocked efforts to use airplanes or helicopters to put out the wildfire. People from residential areas near the forest helped the firefighters. The cause of the fire is not yet clear. Occasional fires break out in the region during the high season for wildfires which is the summer. As winds died down, a firefighting airplane was deployed in the area, extinguishing the flames within a short time.

The Hatay Governorate said in a statement that two suspects were detained over "suspicion of sabotage" in relation to the fire that simultaneously broke out. The terrorist group PKK was blamed in some forest fires in the past but authorities did not disclose whether the suspects were affiliated with any terrorist groups.

Wildfires, aggravated by the fallout from climate change, threaten Turkey’s evergreen land. The country saw 226,845 hectares of forests damaged or completely burned between 2012 and 2021, with more than 61% of this loss taking place in 2021 alone. Data from the Directorate General of Forestry (OGM) shows a total of 27,150 forest fires took place across the country in the past decade. Fires, though not uncommon, appear to have increased in intensity, something blamed on strong winds spreading them and searing temperatures further aggravating the flames. Though last year may seem the worst in terms of the size of the forests that succumbed to the blazes, the highest number of fires took place in 2013, at 3,755, one year before the country recorded its least fires in a decade at 2,149.

Last year, 2,793 forest fires were reported. Most of them, as was the case in the past, took place during the summer season. The majority of the huge fires were in Antalya and Muğla, two southern provinces on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The deadly blazes claimed the lives of at least eight people. The wildfires prompted a nationwide mobilization to help the burned down villages and triggered a debate on the country’s response to such massive fires. The forest fires that erupted in more than 500 locations in two provinces lasted for days, the longest for 15 days, causing the evacuation of villages in Manavgat, the worst-hit district in Antalya, as well as evacuations from Bodrum and Marmaris, two popular vacation destinations in the neighboring Muğla province.

As the summer approaches, Turkey readies for another potential season of wildfires, sometimes stemming from arson by terrorist groups but more often than not due to negligence, like haphazardly discarded inflammable materials. This year 55 helicopters and 20 airplanes have been reserved for dumping water on burning forests, while some 15,000 volunteers are ready to be in the field, along with the professional staff. The country also deploys drones in forests, monitoring them around the clock for faster response to the wildfires.