DEVASTATING wildfires have once again erupted in Turkey with hundreds of people evacuated as massive blazes continue to rip through the country.
The president of the country has warned of a “truly great disaster” after at least 13 people died in the fatal fires.
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New wildfires broke out on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast on Friday, as the government declared two western provinces in the country to be “disaster zones”.
East of Antalya, fires broke out in Adana and Mersin on Friday.
Elsewhere in the country, firefighters continued battling blazes in Eskisehir and nearby Karabuk that have been raging for several days.
Images showed flames and smoke billowing into the sky close to high-rise apartment buildings in Antalya, where local and foreign visitors flock during the summer months.
Homes were evacuated in the city centre and the outlying district of Aksu as the fire advanced, news agency DHA reported.
Firefighters struggled to extinguish the blazes before strong winds could spread the fire, which closed a major coastal road.
Further along the coast, homes in the city of Manavgat were also threatened.
Local residents with hoses and buckets rushed to assist firefighters as water-dropping helicopters and planes also battled the flames.
Police water cannons and municipal water trucks were also enlisted in the firefighting efforts.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the country faced “a truly great disaster” after 25,000 people got involved in the emergency effort.
On Thursday, at least six separate wildfires were burning across Turkey.
Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli warned that strong winds and blazing heat were creating extremely dangerous conditions.
He said that ten firefighters were killed while battling a fire in the central Eskisehir province, Yumakli said late on Wednesday, adding that 14 others were injured.
Fanned by strong winds, the fire later spread to another central province, Afyonkarahisar.
In the northwestern province of Bilecik, fires raged for a fourth straight day, as firefighters struggled to contain them.
Residents were evacuated from fire-threatened areas of all three Turkish provinces, though some residents were later allowed to return to areas in Bilecik that were declared safe.
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Another fire in the neighbouring province of Karabuk, where the UNESCO World Heritage City of Safranbolu is located, quickly grew and led to 10 villages being evacuated.
Antalya Gov. Hulusi Sahin said that the fires were under control apart from one in Aksu, which was showing a tendency to grow, and another in Gazipasa, east of Manavgat.
“The fires were truly disturbing and dangerous, because they occurred in city centres, among houses,” he said.
“We evacuated some of our homes … There are no deaths or injuries.”
At 46.1°C, July temperatures in Antalya city were the highest for the month since records began in 1930.
Turkey has faced widespread outbreaks of forest fires since late June.
Firefighters were battling more than 600 fires fuelled by high winds in the drought-hit nation.
Residents watched in horror as their homes were torched up and forestry continued to burn.
Aftermath photos showed scorched cars and buildings while firefighters worked desperately to fight the flames.
Meanwhile, Cyprus has been hit with its worst wildfires “for 50 years” amid growing fears a 44°C heatwave will fuel the blaze even further.
The country has plunged into chaos after two people were burnt alive and more than 70 houses were destroyed.
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