At least eleven people were killed and dozens injured in a vegetation fire which spread by winds to several villages in southeastern Turkey, also causing the death of hundreds of animals.
In an updated report at the beginning of the afternoon, Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca reported “eleven dead and 78 people affected”. Among them, five had to be placed in intensive care, he said.
Mr Koca had previously announced “44 injured, including ten seriously”in this rural area located between the cities of Diyarbakir and Mardin, close to the Syrian border.
In addition to the human toll, images of dozens of charred goats, sheep and donkeys, lying in the burned grass of this mainly agricultural and livestock-raising region, have been widely shared on social networks.
The villagers of Köksalan, one of the most affected localities, reported to AFP that they had lost half of their approximately one thousand goats and sheep and were working on Friday to collect the carcasses of their animals.
For the rescued animals who were still standing with great difficulty, their coats burnt in the charred black fields, their skin sometimes raw, calls were made to volunteer veterinarians.
“My veterinary brothers, please go to the fire zone” said Seracettin Bedirhanoğlu, provincial leader of the main opposition party CHP in the neighboring region of Van, under “unbearable images” seriously injured animals.
According to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, the fire broke out late Thursday due to stubble burning in an area located about thirty kilometers south of Diyarbakir, where the thermometer climbs above 40 degrees in daytime.
The flames spread quickly under the influence of the wind, affecting five villages. The disaster was brought under control during the night but “cooling efforts” continued on Friday, according to the minister, for fear of a resumption of the disaster.
Images broadcast overnight on social networks showed a gigantic fire fanned by the wind and illuminating the red sky, as well as large clouds of smoke.
Seven emergency teams and thirty-five ambulances were dispatched to the scene, Koca said. A new outbreak broke out Friday morning near the village of Ergani, in the same region, but was able to be contained, according to an AFP correspondent.
Judicial information
A judicial investigation has been opened, announced the Turkish Minister of Justice, Yilmaz Tunç. During the night, the pro-Kurdish opposition party DEM, the third force in parliament, urged the authorities to deploy air assets, as they did quickly in recent days after fires broke out in the west of the country.
“So far, ground intervention has been insufficient. The authorities must intervene more widely and with air means without wasting time”called the party in a press release.
On Tuesday, maritime traffic had to be partially suspended for a few hours in the busy Dardanelles Strait, in northwest Turkey, due to a forest fire.
There too, a stubble fire lit by a farmer was the cause of the disaster. The summer of 2021 was marked by violent fires in southwest Turkey, particularly in the steep mountainous area of Mugla province, planted with conifers. A fire even threatened a power station.
The population then discovered, to their dismay, the absence of working water bomber planes. Nearly 13,000 hectares were destroyed by fires in Turkey in 2024, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis).
The fires that are increasing across the globe are associated with various phenomena anticipated by scientists due to global warming.
The increase in temperature, the increase in heatwaves and the drop in precipitation in places represent an ideal combination for the development of fires, which start more easily when the vegetation and soil are very dry.
