ANKARA: Türkiye has faced an intense wildfire crisis over the past 10 days, with 761 blazes reported—accounting for nearly a quarter of all such incidents this year, according to official data released by the Türkiye Communications Directorate on Sunday. All the fires have either been fully extinguished or brought under control, the report confirmed.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya stated that at least 228 homes were destroyed in Izmir alone, one of the hardest-hit regions. The government is currently assessing the full scale of the damage. “We are deploying container homes to temporarily shelter those who lost their houses,” Yerlikaya said.
In addition to Izmir, tens of thousands of residents across the country have been forced to evacuate their homes as fires threatened populated areas. Türkiye’s firefighting capacity includes 27 planes and 105 helicopters, deployed strategically to tackle the blazes.
The frequency and intensity of fires have raised alarms about climate conditions and resource readiness as Türkiye braces for a hotter-than-usual summer. Despite the scale, firefighting teams have made significant progress, bringing all active fires under control as of the weekend.
