Turkey has launched an international appeal for help in taming fires that have been raging across the country’s southern coastline since the fires broke out last Wednesday.
At least eight people have been reported dead due to the fires. Throughout the country, 132 destructive blazes have raged, burning at least 118,789 hectares of land.
The country has launched an international appeal for help in taming the fires. The European Commission has already helped to mobilise firefighting aeroplanes as part of rescEU, the European reserve of civil protection assets.
Wildfires across southern Europe
Turkey is not the only country currently battling flames. Wildfires have broken out across much of southern Europe including in Greece, Spain and Italy.
In Greece, temperatures reached 45C. A major blaze broke out on Saturday near Patras in the west of the country. Five villages had to be evacuated. Last month, fires in Cyprus claimed the lives of four people.
In Italy, wildfires have devastated a pine forest near a beach in Pescara on the Adriatic coast. More than 800 flare-ups were recorded just last weekend according to Italy’s national fire service, 250 of them in Sicily.
In Spain, the latest fire broke out in San Juan, about 40km east of Madrid. The blaze broke out on Saturday afternoon but was under control by Sunday with the air of water-dropping aircraft.
Turkey has experienced several extreme events due to climate change
The fires are only the most recent sign that Turkey is struggling to cope with the changing climate.
In May, Lake Tuz, a lake in eastern Turkey’s Van province, completely dried up. Thousands of baby flamingos died from a drought that environments said was the result of climate change and agriculture irrigation methods. Droughts have also caused sinkholes in central Anatolia.
Fires intensified by heatwave
Southern Europe is experiencing its most severe heatwave in decades. The heatwave, the result of a heat dome (when high pressure sits over an area trapping heat), is expected to continue into next week. This would make the heatwave the most severe since the 1980s.
While over 100,000 hectares have been burnt in Turkey so far this year, the average amount for up to the same point in the years from 2008 to 2020 was 13,516 hectares. The average amount of wildfires in Turkey per year during the same period was 43, compared with more than triple that this year.
Climate scientist Dann Mitchell told The Associated Press that the heat wave in southeast Europe “is not at all unexpected and very likely due to human-induced climate change.”
Watch out for the IPCC
Next Monday, 9 August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report will be released. It is expected to draw clear conclusions about the links between climate change and extreme weather events, such as heatwaves.