Turkish firefighters battle flames for the fourth day

Strong winds fuel fires in country’s main tourist destination

Two women stand on the wreckage of their burned house after a fire engulfed woodland in the coastal tourist province of Antalya on Saturday.

ANKARA (AFP) – Strong winds yesterday hampered around 1,300 firefighters battling to control a major fire sweeping through woodlands on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, officials said.

Local governor Alaaddin Yuksel said the blaze in the province of Antalya had largely been brought under control, but at least one new fire broke out in the region later in the day.

“The fire is continuing while being generally brought under control,” Yuksel was quoted as saying by Anatolia.

Antalya, Turkey’s main tourist destination, attracts about 7 million foreign tourists every year and is dotted with holiday resorts and prominent historical sites.

A new fire broke out Sunday near Manavgat, which is home to several large resorts, the Environment Ministry said, adding that firefighting helicopters and airplanes were helping efforts there.

Two villages – Cardak and Karabucak – were evacuated as a precaution against the advancing flames, it said.

The wind also fanned a fresh blaze in mountains near Olympos, a picturesque beach popular with young people, which had been brought under control Saturday, Anatolia reported, adding that settlements in the area were not endangered.

“The weather was on our side last night, but the wind began blowing again this morning. Still, we aim to bring the fire under control today,” the deputy head of Antalya’s forestry department, Mustafa Kurtulmuslu, told Anatolia.

The fire broke out Thursday and grew out of control the following day, claiming the life of a villager and leaving dozens homeless. A second man remains unaccounted for.

It destroyed part of the village of Karatas, burning down about 60 houses.

The blaze, which ravaged about 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of woodlands between the towns of Serik and Manavgat, began after winds reaching up to 70 kilometers per hour (43 miles per hour) tore down power lines, officials believe.