Native media report that 24 firefighters and rescuers had been trapped by the wildfire, and that victims had been ‘burned alive’.
Not less than 10 firefighters and rescue staff had been killed and 14 others injured whereas battling a wildfire in Turkiye’s northwestern Eskisehir province, authorities mentioned, as a number of fires rage in central and western areas of the nation the place temperatures are hovering.
Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Ibrahim Yumakli mentioned on Wednesday that 5 forestry staff and 5 rescuers making an attempt to sort out the blaze had been killed when 24 firefighters grew to become trapped within the wildfire earlier within the day.
Winds whipped up by the flames abruptly modified course, and the fireplace engulfed the group of firefighters, who had been swiftly transported to hospital, the place 10 of them died.
Fourteen others are nonetheless receiving medical remedy, the minister mentioned.
“Sadly, we’ve got misplaced 5 forest staff and 5 [rescuers],” Yumakli advised Turkish tv broadcasters.
Turkish information web site BirGun reported that the group had been trapped by the fireplace and “burned alive”.
Native lawmaker Nebi Hatipoglu wrote on X that there are “no phrases to explain our grief”.
Turkiye has been sweltering since Sunday beneath excessive temperatures and powerful winds which have fanned wildfires between Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, with the spreading blazes threatening properties and forcing the evacuation of a number of villages.
Minister Yumakli mentioned excessive warmth and unstable wind situations had been additionally anticipated on Thursday.
“Beginning tomorrow, we face extraordinary temperatures and excessive wind shifts. As soon as once more, I name on all 86 million residents to be vigilant and train additional warning,” he mentioned.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised the victims who fought “to guard our forests at price of their lives”.
“I pray for God’s mercy on our brothers and sisters who fought at the price of their lives to guard our forests, and I supply my condolences to their households and our nation,” Erdogan mentioned in a message posted on social media.
Two prosecutors have been assigned to analyze the incident, the nation’s justice minister mentioned.
The deaths on Wednesday carry the variety of deaths in wildfires to date within the nation to 13 this yr.
An aged man and two forestry staff had been killed in a wildfire that raged close to the city of Odemis, within the Izmir province, earlier this month.
