Sixty-three wildfires in two days: Government slammed over lack of firefighting aircraft

Photos: AA

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In the last two days, 63 wildfires erupted in Turkey, mostly in southern and southwestern provinces, Minister of Bekir Pakdemirli has said.

Forty-three fires have been brought under control while three people lost their lives and 183 people were affected by fires in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, Pakdemirli told reporters today (July 30).

Four planes, 38 helicopters, 472 water tenders, 19 helicopters, three UAVs and 4,000 personnel have been deployed to respond to the fires throughout the country, he noted.

Several hotels in Muğla's popular holiday resorts of Bodrum and Muğla have been evacuated as the fires spread. One of them was the Titanic Hotel, which was reportedly built in an area that had been burned in a wildfire.

The lack of firefighting aircraft

The low number of available firefighting planes caused heavy criticism on social media. The ministry had only one plane and reportedly leased two planes from Russia for 1.3 million lira (158,000 USD) per day to respond to the fires.

The Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK), whose planes had been used in firefighting for decades, have not been able to participate in tenders for firefighting aircraft in the last two years due to tender specifications.

A THK plane

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry stipulates that the minimum capacity of the aircraft should be 5,000 liters while the THK planes have 4,900-liter tanks.

A former head of the THK, retired Lieutenant General Erdoğan Karakuş, told Diken news portal that the association had 19 firefighting planes at his time.

Rus ekiplerin Türkiye’deki yangınları söndürmek için yürüttüğü özverili çalışmalardan görüntüler Героическая работа российских экипажей по тушению пожаров в Турции pic.twitter.com/LBBPI1VIKp

— RusEmbTurkey (@RusEmbTurkey) July 29, 2021

"Ten planes are idle. Six planes in usable condition are not used because the amount of water they carry is low," he said, adding that the planes would be very effective if they start responding to a fire within 15 minutes from its eruption.

THK planes are more efficient in mountainous terrains because they are small and agile, said Karakuş.

Claims of "sabotage"

Investigations have been opened to determine the cause of the fires, Pakdemirli added.

The number of fires in such a short period of time led to "sabotage" claims on social media with many people blaming the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The hashtag "PKK burned" (#PKKyaktı) became a trending topic with more than 100,000 posts on Twitter.

Several hotels have been evacuated in Muğla.

The PKK has a history of setting forests on fire in various parts of the country in response to what it says forest fires deliberately started by the government in Kurdish-majority regions.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Engin Ökzoç said in a tweet that he had talked to Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu about the claims. "He said no intelligence information indicating that the forest fires occurred because of sabotage has been reached yet. He said they think that the fires might have broken out due to excessive heat."

Mersin

Several investigations have been opened into the incidents with the authorities not ruling out a possible act of "sabotage," according to various reports.

One person suspected of starting fires in Mersin has been taken into custody. (TP/VK)