High winds hamper fight against wildfire in west Turkiye

Ankara: Firefighters in western Turkiye were on Monday battling high winds to try and control a large forest fire raging in a coastal area of the Izmi...

Ankara: Firefighters in western Turkiye were on Monday battling high winds to try and control a large forest fire raging in a coastal area of the Izmir province, a minister said.

The fire began around midday on Sunday in the Seferihisar district, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of the resort city of Izmir, fuelled by high winds of up to 120 kilometres per hour (75 miles per hour).

Around 20 homes, which had been evacuated as a precaution, were gutted by the blaze, with only the walls left standing, footage from the private NTV channel showed.

"The wind intensity has decreased but it could pick up. It reached 65 kph overnight which made the work difficult but at daybreak the aerial firefighting teams resumed their work," Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli told reporters.

He said more than 1,000 people had been drafted in to fight the blaze alongside four planes, 14 helicopters and 106 firetrucks.