Wildfires rip through popular Turkish beach resort as hotels evacuated

Wildfires have sparked in Turkey after temperatures surged to above 40°C due to a severe heatwave.

Reports point to the fire spreading in the southeast region, hitting Kuşadası, a beach resort town on Turkey’s western Aegean coast.

Helicopters and planes were deployed over the Diyarbakir and Mardi provinces in an attempt to extinguish the flames while hotels in some areas have also been evacuated.

Throughout the night, aircraft equipped with night vision cameras in Izmir’s Selcuk district worked to combat fire, with ground and air efforts resuming today.

Turkey has already experienced 74 wildfires this year (Photo: Mehmet Emin Menguarslan/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Hotels evacuate guests as wildfires continue to rage Selcuk district of Izmir (Photo by Berkan Cetin/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Authorities have launched a probe into the origins of the fire, with Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya citing “stubble burning”, a farming method of removing crop residue from land to make way for the new season, as a possible cause.

The UK’s Foreign Office has updated its travel guidance to help tourists cope with the extreme heat saying local authorities may tell tourists to “leave their accommodation.”

It said: “If there is a wildfire in your area, local authorities may tell you to leave your accommodation. Follow the directions of local authorities. If you see a wildfire, call emergency services on 112.”

This marks Turkey’s 75th wildfire of the year according to the European Forest Fire Information System, with 31,900 acres of land already destroyed by June.

This comes after 12 people were killed in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir and Mardin earlier this month.

(Photo: Mehmet Emin Menguarslan/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Firefighters, citizens and farmers intervene to prevent the forest fire in the forest area next to the Selcuk-Kusadasi highway (Photo by Mehmet Emin Menguarslan/Anadolu via Getty Images)

According to health minister, Fahrettin Koca, 78 people were also wounded following the fires.

The same region was also devastated by wildfires in three years ago which resulted in the deaths of nine people.

Last year, Greece also suffered devastating fires which devastated parts of the northeast of the country which bordered Turkey.

Amid the desperate situation, Nikos Gioktsidis, a nurse at the University Hospital of Alexandroupolis, said: “I’ve been working for 27 years, I’ve never seen anything like this. Stretchers everywhere, patients here, IV drips there it was like a war, like a bomb had exploded.”