A coal-fueled power plant in southwest Turkey and surrounding residential areas were evacuated Wednesday evening as flames from a wildfire reached the plant, according to a mayor and local reporters, as the plant's sirens blared.
For the previous two days, Milas Mayor Muhammet Tokat, a member of Turkey's main opposition party, has been warning of the dangers of fire at the Kemerkoy power plant in Mugla province. He claimed the plant was being evacuated late Wednesday. The wildfires triggered the evacuation of Oren, a nearby seaside community, according to local reports.
As the fires approached the factory, Turkey's defense ministry announced it was evacuating people by water. The flames had "jumped" to the plant, according to TRT, the state broadcaster. The fires were becoming more unpredictable due to the strong winds.
According to authorities, the Kemerkoy power plant's hydrogen tanks were emptied and safety procedures were implemented. TRT reported that flammable and explosive materials have been removed. According to the plant's website, lignite is used to generate power.
Bright orange, burning hills with power towers and lines crisscrossing the foreground were seen in videos from the area. Channel that is pro-government. Late Wednesday, a Hbr streaming live from near the evacuated power station reported firemen were cooling equipment and dousing sparks within the site in an attempt to keep the fire at bay. An incinerated police water cannon was shown by the channel's team.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was speaking live on A Hbr as the mayor announced the evacuation on Twitter. Erdogan said the power plant was in danger of catching fire. Three ministers were on the scene to keep an eye on things, he said, adding that planes and helicopters had been fighting fires all day.
However, the mayor claimed that air support was sporadic and that it primarily addressed the smaller fires near the facility rather than the larger fires in the area that were being fueled by shifting winds. Air support was not available at all during the night, and videos showed flames near the plant.
In Turkey, the wildfires have become yet another partisan issue. For criticizing Turkey's lack of effective aerial firefighting capabilities and inadequate preparedness for large-scale wildfires, Erdogan accused opposition party members of a "terror of lies." Although the president stated that municipalities were also responsible for protecting communities from flames and that this responsibility did not lay solely on the central government, mayors claim they were not even invited to crisis coordination.
For the previous two days, firefighters have been attempting to defend the power plant. They battled the flames with police water cannons Tuesday night, while other rescuers dug ditches around the Kemerkoy facility. Videos from a nearby Milas neighborhood showed burnt and damaged trees.
The fires have been fueled by scorching heat, low humidity, and powerful winds, which have killed eight people, numerous animals, and damaged forests in the last eight days. Tourists have left in boats and cars, while villagers have had to abandon their houses and cattle. Seven fires raged in the Mediterranean province of Mugla, where tourist hotspot Bodrum is located, on Wednesday. At least two fires burned in Antalya, forcing the evacuation of two neighborhoods.
Officials said 167 fires have been put out and 16 are still burning across five regions. Thousands of firefighters and people worked to extinguish the fires.
Another firefighting jet and its crew would arrive from Azerbaijan on Thursday morning, according to Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, and 40 firetrucks would travel to Turkey to assist with the fires. He reported that four hired firefighting planes had arrived, with two more coming from Israel on Thursday.
In Turkey, environmentalists and opposition MPs are concerned that fire-damaged forests could lose their protected status.
In July, Turkey's parliament passed a bill giving the tourism ministry control over all aspects of new tourism facilities designated by the president, including those in forests and on treasury lands for the "public good," delegating responsibility to the environment and forestry ministries. According to the law, these areas will be chosen based on their tourism potential and the country's natural, historic, and cultural characteristics.
Turkish officials, including Erdogan, have categorically denied that the forests are in risk of being deforested, claiming that the constitution protects the forests and that they will be reforested. While the actual amount of land burned in the last week is unknown, officials have vowed that the impacted regions will not be used for other reasons.
Environmentalists had already been contesting mining licenses awarded for areas of several woods, attempting to prevent businesses from felling trees. They've organized sit-ins all around Turkey.
According to a research published in 2020 by the Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion, mines have been granted permission to operate across 58% of Turkey's woods. Mines have been allocated for almost 59 percent of Mugla, where the fires have been raging, according to the report.
“I won't be able to see the replanted forests because I won't be able to see them. Resit Yavuz, a resident of Marmaris in Mugla province, remarked, "Perhaps my kids won't even see them." “There are no more trees. There's no place for flames to start.”
Wildfires have erupted across the Mediterranean, especially in Italy and Greece, due to a heatwave in southern Europe fueled by hot air from North Africa. On Tuesday, the temperature in Marmaris reached an all-time high of 45.5 C (114 F).
The heatwave is expected to last till the end of the week in Turkey and Greece.
