The death toll from the vegetation fire which broke out in southeastern Turkey during the night from Thursday to Friday rose to fifteen deaths, authorities reported, while experts point to a possible electrical origin.
According to the health directorate of Mardin province, cited by the official Anadolu agency, three people injured in the fire lost their lives over the weekend.
Two others are still in intensive care, we learned on Monday from a hospital source.
The authorities, who reported a death toll of twelve on Friday, attributed the origin of the fire, which was brought under control on Friday, to stubble burning, and opened a judicial investigation.
In a report made public on Sunday evening, the local branch of the Union of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) however states that “the cause of the fire is not thatch”.
“It was observed that the place where the fire broke out was cultivated and there was no stubble”she writes, believing that the catastrophe “could have been caused by power lines” poorly maintained, as residents had mentioned.
Experts, who note that some of the “connections could cause electric arcs”accuse the electricity supplier Dedas of having “replaced and repaired utility poles the day after the fire, thus hiding the evidence”.
Three legal experts also affirmed on Friday that one of the conductor cables of the high voltage line “broke and ignited the grass on the ground”.
The fire, in which more than 900 sheep and goats died according to the Minister of Agriculture, then “spread over a wide area under the influence of the wind”they note.
The flames then trapped villagers who were trying to save their livestock, according to residents’ accounts to AFP.
In June 2023, a similar vegetation fire broke out twenty kilometers further west. A Turkish court has ordered electricity supplier Dedas, found guilty of poor maintenance of lines, to pay compensation to villagers whose land was engulfed in flames.
More than 15,000 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.
