Çanakkale wildfire brought under control after 48 hours

ÇANAKKALE

A fire in the northwestern province of Çanakkale has been brought under control after nearly a 48-hour intense battle against the blaze, Agriculture and Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumaklı has announced.

The fire, which broke out on Aug. 22 at noon, rapidly spread across wide areas due to the influence of strong winds, prompting the deployment of 10 planes, 38 helicopters, and 3,174 personnel for firefighting efforts.

The crews that managed to prevent the blaze from spreading to larger areas as of Aug. 23 brought it under control by the morning of Aug. 24.

The teams immediately began cooling operations to prevent any potential reignition.

"The interior and defense ministries' vehicles conducted 503 hours of aerial operations with 2,828 sorties. They also used nearly 9,000 tons of water in the fire area,” Yumaklı said.

According to initial estimates, the fire has damaged a total area of 4,080 hectares, including 2,650 hectares of forested areas and 1,430 hectares of agricultural areas and land used for several purposes, Yumaklı said, underlining that “not all of these areas were completely burned but some only suffered damage.”

He stressed that the investigations will reveal the extent of the fire damage more clearly.

The maritime traffic in the Çanakkale Strait, which had been closed to allow firefighting planes to gather water from the sea, resumed on Aug. 24 at 11 a.m., he added.

Yumaklı also noted that a fire in Eskişehir has also been brought under control, damaging an area of 260 hectares.

Regarding the cause of the Çanakkale fire, Yumaklı noted that as the first point of the fire was determined to be quite close to a residential area, they evaluated a human-induced disaster, adding that the authorities have not identified a definite cause or a suspect.

Yumaklı reminded that seven people were under observation as a precautionary measure and said, "These people had chronic illnesses. One of our volunteers had a non-life-threatening injury. Other than that, they do not have any life-threatening or problematic conditions.”

“Of course, we are glad that we did not have any loss of [human] life, but we are frankly heartbroken for the living creatures in the ecosystem in the affected area. Because, unfortunately, the creatures living in this ecosystem, with whom we share the world, are also heavily affected by this fire,” he added.