The team walks steadily uphill through parched brush, tiny silhouettes cast against a wall of fire that rages in every direction. Smoke fills the air; the sun is setting, but the raging fires all around bathe us in an apocalyptic orange half-light. Breathing equipment is a lifeline in the cloying, acrid air.
Burning embers rain down on us in huge clouds, with a wall of fire in front of us and dotted all around on hilltops and hillsides. The moment one gets under control, another is whipped up by the wind. Then the first starts burning again. “Friends, come on … forward,” shout the vanguard of the Turkish firefighting unit, four men and one woman, as they try to extinguish the blaze in Izmir province, on the country’s western coast.
For rescue workers, this week has proved a perfect storm. The fires are being fuelled by searing heat, fierce winds of more than 75mph and parched countryside that has been rendered perfect tinder by a continuing drought.
Turkey experienced 1,500 fires in June in a perfect storm of intense heat, strong winds and dry conditions
EMRE CAYLAK FOR THE TIMES
More than 50,000 people have been evacuated from their homes across the province. The worst of the blazes are near Cesme, a coastal peninsular town popular with tourists. The roads out were blocked by police after being engulfed in fire, a wiggling line of angry flames that licked at the verges of the main motorway and began to dance across the tarmac as The Times passed through.
Europe has been hit with an intense heatwave as temperatures reach up to 10C above the seasonal norm. Wildfires have broken out in Crete, Spain, Germany and beyond. In Turkey, there were almost 1,500 fires in June, affecting the rural areas around 15 cities, from Bilecek in the north to Antakya in the south. Almost a third of those were in the last few days of the month, and July is threatening to be worse — after a brief dip in temperatures, the mercury is set to top 40C again next week.
More than a thousand firefighters have been working to try to control the blazes, assisted by water-bombing planes and helicopters. Efforts have been hampered by strong winds that whip up the flames and frequently ground aerial vehicles. Many believe the cause is human, and the minister of agriculture and forestry, Ibrahim Yumakli, says cigarette butts, picnics and construction are among the leading causes.
EMRE CAYLAK FOR THE TIMES
MAHMUT SERDAR ALAKUS/ANADOLU/GETTY
Turkey is among the countries most vulnerable to warmer temperatures in the Mediterranean, facing hotter, drier conditions than the global average. There has been a meteorological drought for four months and groundwater reserves have shrunk in recent years. “We used to get water 10m down in the ground, now we have to dig to 70,” said one Izmir farmer.
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Abdulraheem Ener, mukhtar of the Orhanli neighbourhood of Seferihisar, said 10,500 hectares had been destroyed and 10 houses burnt down. The area was full of olive, fig and fruit trees. The fires are particularly damaging for olive trees, which take decades to mature. Many of them are effectively irreplaceable. “I’m 55 and it’s the first time I have seen anything like this,” he said. “We used to have small fires, but this one is so big I have never seen anything like it.”
He added: “There is no water here any more, we get less yield from harvests every year. Now we need to water everything consistently ourselves because it is so hot.”
Two people are confirmed to have died in Odemis, east of Izmir, including a forest worker who died as they battled the blaze. An 85-year-old man who couldn’t evacuate died in his bed.
The fires leave behind a charred, smoking hellscape of ash, charred vegetation and burnt-out houses. They melt water tanks and fire hoses, devastate farms and people’s livelihoods. Seyhan lost her house in Seferihisar, which suffered three days of intense fires earlier in the week.
Olive groves and orchards have been decimated
EMRE CAYLAK FOR THE TIMES
She happened to be staying at a friend’s house when “100ft” flames — according to a neighbour, Haydar — came from nowhere and obliterated it. She lost everything, including a collection of comic books she says was worth more than £20,000, and her two beloved rescue cats.
“All I have left is what I was wearing that day and my phone,” she said. “My house burnt for two days. I think it was all the books, and now all my belongings, gathered since childhood, are gone.”
Seyhan inspects the remains of her home
EMRE CAYLAK FOR THE TIMES
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The only thing that remains recognisable in the rubble is a muffin tray. “The fires were incredible. Birds flew over looking for their nests and their tails caught fire so they had to escape,” said Haydar. “There used to be a lot of wild horses around here. I can’t forget the sound of their screams.”
Haydar and his brothers managed to fight back the flames from their house, keeping them away from gas canisters that would have exploded. But they lost a number of animals — cows, goats and chickens — and their olive trees, some of which were 300 years old. “We made our living from olive oil and I don’t know what we will do now,” he said, pointing to a charred tree that had burnt from the inside and collapsed in flames, landing metres from the house. “If the fire had come at night, we would have died in our beds,” he said. “We are scared this will be normal now.”