Wildfires in Turkey contained: minister

Ankara, July 19 – The wildfires in Turkey’s several provinces have been contained, the country’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said Friday.

“There were nine fires yesterday, which we defined in the upper-risk group,” the minister said when speaking to reporters in the western Izmir province of Turkey.

“I would like to announce that all of the fires are under control as of now,” he said, Xinhua news agency reported.

The ministry did not receive any reports of casualties or damage to property in the affected region, according to Yumakli.

Noting the ongoing heatwaves in western and southern Türkiye, he cautioned that the high temperature and low humidity levels still pose a high risk for further fires.

A series of wildfires broke out across several provinces of Turkey since Wednesday.

The firefighter teams responded to a total of 48 fires on Thursday, including 34 forest fires and 14 rural fires, the minister said in a separate statement on social media platform X.

Turkey frequently experiences forest fires during the summer months, particularly in its western and southern regions, as a result of high temperatures and low humidity levels.