Shortly after 2 p.m., a new report showed at least eleven people dead, again according to the Minister of Health. According to this last point from Fahrettin Koca, seventy-eight people were also “affected” by the disaster, some of whom had to be hospitalized.
While the flames were brought under control overnight, a new outbreak broke out on Friday morning near the village of Ergani, in the same region, but was able to be contained. The villagers of Köksalan, one of the most affected localities, reported having lost half of their approximately 1,000 goats and sheep, whose black corpses litter the charred ground.
HANDOUT/AFP
The fires caused the death of hundreds of animals.
Images broadcast overnight on social networks showed a gigantic fire fanned by the wind and lighting up the red sky, as well as large clouds of smoke. Seven emergency teams and thirty-five ambulances were dispatched to the scene, Fahrettin Koca said.
Five villages affected
The fire broke out late Thursday due to burning of stubble in an area located about thirty kilometers south of Diyarbakir, where the thermometer climbs above 40 degrees during the day, said Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. The flames spread quickly under the influence of the wind, affecting five villages.
“Unfortunately, three residents of the province of Diyarbakir and two of the province of Mardin lost their lives,” reported Ali Yerlikaya on X. According to the latter and images broadcast by the official Turkish news agency Anadolu, the fire was “completely controlled” during the night. A judicial investigation has been opened, Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunç announced Friday morning.
During the night, the pro-Kurdish DEM party, 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 aerial means without wasting time,” the party called in a press release.
