Istanbul: Five people were killed and dozens injured in a fire that broke out in several Kurdish villages in southeastern Turkey, the health minister said on Friday.
Pictures posted on social media showed waves of flames over a wide area and plumes of smoke billowing into the night sky.
“Five people died, 44 people were injured, 10 people were seriously injured,” said Health Minister Fahrettin Koka in a tweet earlier this afternoon.
Interior Minister Ali Erlikaya said the fire started late on Thursday, with five villages affected by strong winds and a “straw fire” spreading 30km south of Diyabakir.
In an article on X, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM party called on the authorities to “quickly intervene” to fight the wildfires that hit Friday morning.
The authorities should intervene more widely and from the air without wasting time.”
According to the latest data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), Turkey has been hit by 74 fires this year that have destroyed an area of 12,910 hectares.
In the summer of 2021, Turkey experienced its worst wildfires, killing nine people and destroying large amounts of forest along the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts.
The disaster led to a political crisis, putting pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has no operational firefighting aircraft and is forced to seek international assistance.
Ankara is also pushing for Turkey’s delayed ratification of the Paris climate accord, the last of the Group of 20 major economies.
Experts say climate change will cause more fires and other disasters in Turkey unless action is taken.
