In Turkey, guests of hotels in a number of local resorts were evacuated due to forest fires.
According to Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli, the fire continues to rage in seven regions of the country, including in Mugla bordering Antalya, Kutahya, near the cities of Marmaris and Didim, where the resorts are located.
“Unfortunately, during these two days there were many fires that we did not expect in such a short period of time.
We continue to make efforts to localize them and we will achieve this, although it may take some time, ”TASS quoted him as saying.
He stressed that the authorities had decided to evacuate one hotel in the Guvercinlik district of Bodrum province.
“600 residential buildings were prudently evacuated.
As a result of the fire in Antalya, in Manavgat, 183 people suffered from smoke, 15 of them were discharged from hospitals, others remain on procedures, ”the minister added, confirming the death of three people in Antalya.
Forest fires in Turkey
In turn, a representative of the Russian Consulate General in Antalya told RIA Novosti that a fire near the resort town covered a forest, located not far from city blocks and hotel complexes.
Against this background, preventive evacuation was carried out from some buildings, he said.
In turn, the media reported on the evacuation of two hotels and four tourist villas in Marmaris.
The Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), commenting on the current situation, explained that forest fires in Turkish Marmaris are still far from the hotels where Russian tourists are accommodated, and, according to preliminary data, they have not yet been evacuated.
“A number of Marmaris districts close to the fire front have been evacuated as a preventive measure.
According to a number of tour operators, two three-star suburban hotels and four villas have been evacuated for preventive purposes.
The Association of Tourist Hotel Operators of the South Aegean Sea has placed tourists who were forced to leave their hotels in other hotels in the city, ”the statement said.
The Russian Consulate General also said that the main tourist sites in Turkey are outside the fire zone.
“We are closely monitoring the situation.
Information about the injured Russians has not been reported.
The main tourist sites are located at a distance from the risk zone, and, according to the local authorities, with whom we maintain constant contact, nothing is in danger, "RIA Novosti quotes a representative of the diplomatic mission.
He clarified that the issue of evacuating tourists from the zone adjacent to the forest fires was not considered.
"During the night, single calls from Russian tourists were received on the emergency telephone of the Consulate General, informing about burning and smoke, about power outages," the Consulate General added.
Forest fires in Turkey
At the same time, the Russian Embassy in Ankara reported on Twitter that three Russian Be-200 firefighting aircraft are helping Turkey to extinguish forest fires in the south of the country.
“We wish that the forest fires that broke out in the south of Turkey were extinguished as soon as possible and with minimal damage,” the diplomatic mission said.
📽Rus ekiplerin Türkiye'deki yangınları söndürmek için yürüttüğü özverili çalışmalardan görüntüler 🇷🇺🇹🇷
📽The
heroic work of Russian firefighting crews in Turkey pic.twitter.com/LBBPI1VIKp
- RusEmbTurkey (@RusEmbTurkey) July 29, 2021
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that there is no threat to the lives of people affected by the smoke in Antalya.
According to him, this also applies to patients hospitalized in intensive care units after carbon monoxide poisoning.
“In some areas, the fire has come close to hotels, but mostly the fire is very far from places of rest and hotels.
Workers of our entire tourist sector in these conditions have switched to the maximum vigilance mode, ”he said.
A forest fire broke out the day before near the resort town of Manavgat in the province of Antalya.
According to preliminary data, the cause was the intense heat in the region.
Later, a fire broke out in a number of other resort provinces.
As the head of the Meteo forecast center, Alexander Shuvalov, recalled in an interview with RT, the southern coast of the Black Sea and the Turkish coast of the Mediterranean are located in dry subtropics, where summer is usually a very dry season.
He noted that for Greece and Turkey, the period from June can be assessed as fire hazardous.
“This summer, this fire hazardous period came a little later due to the peculiarities of the atmospheric circulation in the first summer months,” the expert added.