“Strong winds are hampering efforts to extinguish the fires in Izmir,” the Turkish Forestry Directorate wrote on Twitter, as firefighting planes and helicopters took off at sunrise.

Local residents in at least five districts in the two provinces were evacuated as a precaution, but there were no reports of injuries so far.

Footage posted online from one of the fires, near Çeşme, about 80 kilometers west of Izmir, showed the sky darkened by huge clouds of smoke and flames raging above the treetops.

The fire in Cesme started on July 2, about 24 hours after firefighters managed to bring under control several other fires that had ravaged the Izmir area since the end of the week, AFP reported.

Two planes and six helicopters battled strong winds to bring the fire under control, according to private television channel NTV, which reported that three neighborhoods had been evacuated.

The fire damaged power lines and telephone cables, as well as several buildings. Many animals were evacuated from the area, which is home to many livestock farms, the channel added.

“The fire in Çeşme is quite terrifying in terms of its area and scale,” said the forest monitoring group Orman Takip in X.

Izmir Governor Süleyman Elban quoted witnesses and technicians as saying that the fire appeared to have been caused by a power line.

Although the main road between Çeşme and Izmir was closed overnight, it was reopened, although civilian vehicles were banned for safety reasons, the TV channel reported.

Another forest fire is raging in Ödemiş, about 100 kilometers east of Izmir, where two planes and nine helicopters are trying to extinguish the flames, local media reported.

The fire has damaged several houses and neighborhoods have been evacuated as a precautionary measure.

Since June 27, hundreds of fires have been reported in drought-hit Turkey, fueled by strong winds. On Monday, more than 50,000 people were evacuated, mainly in the Izmir area, but also from the southern province of Hatay, the disaster management agency AFAD said.

Turkey, which was spared by the latest heatwave that swept across the rest of southern Europe, is struggling with the effects of prolonged drought caused by climate change. | BGNES