Five planes to be bought to fight forest fires

MARDİN

The General Directorate of Forestry has allocated some 2.4 billion Turkish Liras (around $233 million) in the 2022 budget to buy five planes to fight forest fires in a more effective way, Bekir Karacabey, its general manager, has said.

“The tender process for the procurement of those firefighting planes may be finalized by the end of this year. We have completed our preparations to that end,” Karacabey said. 

He said the number of helicopters will be increased to 55 next year, noting that in 2021 nine helicopters were in use. 

“Turkey was the second country in the world after the U.S. which started to deploy drones to detect forest fires. In 2021, such four drones were in service and hopefully we will use eight drones next year.”

There are 4,150 fire pools and ponds in forests which provide water to firefighting teams, and more of those will be established particularly in the areas that are more prone to forest fires, according to Karacabey. 

“We are working to bolster up our fleet and teams further at a time when the adverse effects of climate change are being felt more by the day,” he added. 

Turkey saw hundreds of forest fires erupt in its southern and southwestern provinces this summer, destroying swathes of land. With intensive and dedicated efforts, all of the blazes were brought under control in over two weeks.