Hundreds flee as rescuers battle wildfire on Gallipoli peninsula

More than 250 people were evacuated overnight as a wildfire raged on the Gallipoli peninsula flanking the Dardanelles Strait. Photo / Handout, Demiroren News Agency, AFP

Seven villages on Turkey’s Gallipoli peninsula flanking the Dardanelles Strait were evacuated as firefighters battled a raging wildfire propelled by high winds, officials said.

The fire began on Saturday in the northwestern province of Canakkale, spreading quickly in the hills near the town of Gelibolu, on the shores of the busy shipping strait.

Overnight, about 250 residents were evacuated from five villages, with two more emptied on Sunday, Canakkale governor Omer Toraman wrote on X, without giving a total number of people affected.

“So far, the fire has not spread to the evacuated areas,” he wrote, also saying that war cemeteries in the peninsula had “not been affected” by the blaze.

The province – popular with tourists visiting the ancient ruins of Troy and the Gallipoli battleground where thousands of soldiers died in World War I – had suffered “extremely severe drought” in the past year, he said.

Agriculture Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said on X that 12 planes and 18 helicopters were fighting the flames alongside 343 vehicles on the ground in an operation involving 1300 people.

While the weather has been fairly normal for the time of year, much of northwestern Turkey has suffered strong winds in recent days, although they eased off on Sunday, meaning efforts to fight the blaze were “progressing more positively”, he added.

Access to historical sites near the town of Eceabat were closed “due to the ongoing forest fire”, the institution running war memorials said on X.

On Monday, more than 2000 people fled another fire on the southern side of the strait, and last week a wildfire forced the suspension of shipping through the Dardanelles Strait, which links the Mediterranean with the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea.

According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) website, there have been 192 wildfires in Turkey this year, which have ravaged more than 110,373ha.

Experts say human-driven climate change is causing more frequent and more intense wildfires and other natural disasters, and have warned Turkey to take measures to tackle the problem.

-Agence France-Presse