ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Firefighters in Turkey battled on Sunday to control five wildfires including ones in the coastal resort towns of Manavgat and Marmaris, but most of the dozens of blazes that erupted in the last five days have been contained, authorities said.
Fanned by sweltering heat and winds, fires were still blazing in Manavgat in the south and Marmaris in the west, Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said.
But firefighters had contained a blaze that erupted on Saturday in the popular resort of Bodrum on the Aegean coast, which prompted the evacuation of some residential areas and hotels, Pakdemirli said.
Some 107 of the 112 fires that broke out in the past five days had been contained as of Sunday morning, according to Forestry Ministry data.
Since Wednesday six people have died because of the fires across southern and western Turkey and thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes. Support teams from Russia, Ukraine, Iran and Azerbaijan have been deployed to help local firefighters.
In neighbouring Greece https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greece-issues-wildfires-warning-over-dangerous-heatwave-2021-07-30, authorities warned the public against unnecessary work and travel on Friday as temperatures hit 40 C (104 F) in Athens. The ancient Acropolis, its most visited monument, was briefly forced to close.
On the Italian island of Sicily https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/firemen-fighting-wildfires-sicilian-town-catania-2021-07-31, firemen said on Saturday they were battling for a second straight day wildfires that reached the town of Catania, forcing people to leave their homes and the local airport to temporarily shut down.
(Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Frances Kerry)
