ISTANBUL (AP) — Firefighters were tackling blazes across Turkey on Friday as dry, hot and windy weather conditions led to a series of fires, including one that threatened World War I memorials and graves at the Gallipoli battle site.
At the peninsula where an Allied landing was beaten back by Ottoman troops in a yearlong campaign in 1915, the flames reached Canterbury Cemetery, where soldiers from New Zealand are interred.
Images of the site in northwest Turkey showed soot-blackened gravestones in a scorched garden looking out over the Aegean Sea.
The fire was brought under control by Friday. Officials said it was started by a spark from electricity lines that spread through forested areas.
Elsewhere, however, the continuous work of emergency crews stretched over days and nights. Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said teams were still fighting 17 of 47 forest fires that were active on Friday.
On the west coast, a fire threatened houses on the outskirts of Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city, where a blaze broke out in the woods Thursday night. Residents fled their homes as ash fell around them.
“The fire in the Dogancay region unfortunately reached residential areas due to the wind. We want our citizens living in the region to evacuate their homes as soon as possible,” District Mayor Irfan Onal posted on social media.
As dense smoke rose into the sky, hundreds of stray animals were removed from municipal shelters and local media reported that flames up to 120 feet (30 meters) high were approaching a housing complex in Dogancay.
Off-duty firefighters were called in to help and police water cannons were also employed to fight the blaze.
“The wind is spreading the effect of the fire to many places,” said Izmir Mayor Cemil Tugay. “Our teams are working with all their might to prevent the fire from reaching residential areas.”
In Manisa Province, a fire was burning for the third day in Gordes, a rural wooded district in Turkey’s northwest. Nearly 80 homes were evacuated and most buildings in the village of Karayakup suffered severe fire damage, the Demiroren News Agency reported.
Meanwhile, in nearby Bolu, firefighters were working for a second day to put out a blaze.
Turkey has mobilized dozens of aircraft, hundreds of vehicles and thousands of personnel to fight the fires. Yumakli warned of a heightened risk of wildfires over the weekend due to low humidity, high winds and high temperatures.
“Our intervention capability and capacity is limited to a certain point,” he told journalists. “It is not possible to emerge victorious from this struggle without the support of our citizens. Therefore, I request high-level sensitivity, especially in these three days.”
The General Directorate of Forestry warned people not to light fires outside for the next 10 days due to the current weather conditions across western Turkey, warning of a 70% greater risk of wildfires.
Earlier this week, firefighters in neighboring Greece fought a fire that burned an area almost twice the size of Manhattan. The fire north of Athens gutted scores of homes before it was contained Tuesday. One person was killed.
In June, a fire spread through settlements in southeast Turkey, killing 11 people and leaving dozens of others requiring medical treatment.
Andrew Wilks, The Associated Press
