Turkish power plant overtaken by wildfires | DW News

A thermal power plant on Turkey's Aegean coast was evacuated Wednesday as it was overtaken by wildfires. Workers at the site had previously emptied cooling tanks filled with hydrogen as a precaution. The AFP news agency reported firefighters, police and workers fleeing the scene as flames roared into the site. "Flames have entered the Kermekoy thermal power plant," said Mayor Muhammet Tokat of the town of Milas, in southwestern Turkey. The plant uses coal and fuel oil to produce electricity. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in the middle of a televised interview when the evacuation began, saying, "the power plant is at risk of burning," and adding, "There has been a tremendous wind. Otherwise, it would have been easier to contain."

Fires in Turkey have been raging for more than a week, destroying large areas of forest along the country's Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, displacing thousands and killing eight. On Wednesday, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said temperatures in Marmaris on the Aegean coast had shattered records, hitting 45.5 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit). "We are fighting a very serious war," he told reporters, "I urge everyone to be patient."

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[gavkimburnhams]

Geçmiş olsun, arkadaşlar
Love and prayers for you and your country, from South Africa 😢

[ugochukwuharbor]

Very saddened to see all these scenes!

[hanaashaba]

Feeling sorry for the people who lost everything 😥

[marclawson]

Has anyone else been stricken by the irony of a global warming induced fire consuming a coal fired power plant? Perhaps they might build two new ones in its place afterward.

[comingafteryou]

My condolences to the families of the victims and hope the fires go out soon 🙏 from Greece.

[homiverse]

In some parts of worlds floods heavy rain in other parts wildfires😥😥

[FM-uosm]

Increase in wildfire had been forecast for decades.

[ottomanosman]

You know that Erdogan has thirteen private jets while our firefighters only has three of them against the fire? Yup, that's what happening now.

[HornetsNest-MH]

Australia: *holds breath and shakes head*

[maszlagma]

My condolences to people who lost possessions or property to these fires.
Have to say that it is really ironic that a climate change causing structure (power plant) is where fires are the worst. We need to act quickly against climate change together!

[belindaleepacete]

Please stay safe people Our prayers and love are with you

[ipekkutlu]

I used to go for summer vacations to this town. I am simply broken to see and watch this news. Heartbreaking 😢

[gnrfanhad]

Now, when the fire comes near their villages the farmers cut clearings in the forests around them to stop the fire from engulfing them. This should have been done long ago. And not by desperate farmers, who lack expertise and experience in this kind of fire prevention but by proffesionals. Where were they? It's not enogh to cut down trees, you need to remove them too and then you need to remove the undergrowth from the clearing and then you need to plough the ground so that only the bare earth is left. And it is best to repeat this operation once a year before summer to be ready in case of fire. Also if there is a straem in the forest, you should build a set of small dams on it to create a set of deep ponds. The shores of the ponds should be cleared and easily accessible for the firefighters' vehicles as a nearby source of water. Also ground roads wide enough for the firefighters' cars should be build into the forest not more than 100 meters aparat. Such roads if they are maintained in every forest provide easy access for the fire brigades to every forest fire regardless of its location plus there should be these wider clearings around bigger portions of the forest to provide fire breaks. And it should be strictly forbidden to park on these roads and in the clearings and around the ponds - these should be easily accessible to fire brigades at all times - night and day. So it is done in my country and no catastrophic forest fires here. This system works for real and should be introduced everywhere. Doing it is fundamental if we want to cut down co2 emmissions. Several fires like these burning for weeks every year make all the sacrifices we make to cut down co2 emmissions useless.. The result for the planet would be the same if we did absolutely nothing to curb co2 emmissions but just prevented all the catastrophic wildfires instead.

[theottomanempirewillriseag]

Not ‘’overtaken’’. The fire near the power plant was put out

[amaldahirtv]

May the Almighty Allah protect and save the people of Turkey aswell as the livestocks from all kinds of calamity. Ameen

[luishernandezblonde]

Remember, Erdogan had welcomed only three countries aiding her: Azerbaijan (common history), Russia (Putin's totalitarian regime) and Ukraine (helping Erdogan to hunt dissidents in Europe).

[michaelwalters]

Just left Greece two weeks ago glad to be out and not get caught in this mess. We did see remote fires on Hydra but not enough trees to really spread to fast.

[balvirspal]

I hope everyone good and fire under control

[jollyjokress]

I wonder if Erdogan insists on pushing this channel atm

[Larissa-ofqt]

Wht about italy, greece, califoria wild fires at the moment..alot of countries are on fire at the same time.