Local media report that 24 firefighters and rescuers were trapped by the wildfire, and that victims were ‘burned alive’.
At least 10 firefighters and rescue workers were killed and 14 others injured while battling a wildfire in Turkiye’s northwestern Eskisehir province, authorities said, as several fires rage in central and western areas of the country where temperatures are soaring.
Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Ibrahim Yumakli said on Wednesday that five forestry workers and five rescuers trying to tackle the blaze were killed when 24 firefighters became trapped in the wildfire earlier in the day.
Winds whipped up by the flames suddenly changed direction, and the fire engulfed the group of firefighters, who were swiftly transported to hospital, where 10 of them died.
Fourteen others are still receiving medical treatment, the minister said.
“Unfortunately, we have lost five forest workers and five [rescuers],” Yumakli told Turkish television broadcasters.
Turkish news website BirGun reported that the group were trapped by the fire and “burned alive”.
Local lawmaker Nebi Hatipoglu wrote on X that there are “no words to describe our grief”.
Turkiye has been sweltering since Sunday under high temperatures and strong winds that have fanned wildfires between Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, with the spreading blazes threatening homes and forcing the evacuation of several villages.
Minister Yumakli said extreme heat and volatile wind conditions were also expected on Thursday.
“Starting tomorrow, we are facing extraordinary temperatures and extreme wind shifts. Once again, I call on all 86 million citizens to be vigilant and exercise extra caution,” he said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised the victims who fought “to protect our forests at cost of their lives”.
“I pray for God’s mercy on our brothers and sisters who fought at the cost of their lives to protect our forests, and I offer my condolences to their families and our nation,” Erdogan said in a message posted on social media.
Two prosecutors have been assigned to investigate the incident, the country’s justice minister said.
The deaths on Wednesday bring the number of deaths in wildfires so far in the country to 13 this year.
An elderly man and two forestry workers were killed in a wildfire that raged near the town of Odemis, in the Izmir province, earlier this month.
