Marmaris – A roaring blaze raced towards a Turkish thermal power plant Tuesday and farmers herded panicked cattle towards the sea as wildfires that have killed eight people raged on for a seventh day.
The nation of 84 million has been transfixed in horror as the most destructive wildfires in generations erase pristine forests and rich farmland across swaths of Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean coasts.
Frightened tourists have been forced to scamper onto boats for safety and dozens of villages have been evacuated as wild winds and soaring heat spread the flames.
An AFP team in the Aegean city of Marmaris saw farmers pulling their screaming animals out of the burning barns to take them to the relative safety of the beach.
Officials in neighbouring Greece have blamed two smaller fires on the island of Rhodes and the Peloponnese peninsula on a record heatwave they link to climate change.
Temperature in excess of 40 degrees Celsius across the south of Turkey also set off a record surge in electricity use that caused power outages Monday in cities such as Ankara and Istanbul.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government faced increased criticism over its apparent poor response and inadequate preparedness for large-scale wildfires, AP reported.
Firefighters were still tackling nine fires in the coastal province of Antalya and Mugla that are popular tourist destinations. Other active fires were reported in the provinces of Adana and Isparta. In all, 137 fires that broke out in over 30 provinces since Wednesday have been put out, officials said.
A senior Turkish forestry official described the wildfires as the worst in Turkey in living memory. He also could not estimate how long it would take the crews to put the fires out, saying strong winds were reigniting flames that had previously been brought under control. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.
Erdogan, meanwhile, has also been accused of insensitivity after he threw bags of tea at residents from a bus during a weekend visit to the fire-hit Antalya region.
