A thermal power plant and its surrounding town on the Aegean Sea were being evacuated on Aug. 4 as a deadly wildfire that has ravaged Turkey for the past week engulfed its outer edge.
Firefighters and police evacuated the 35-year-old Kemerköy plant in the hillside Aegean province of Muğla.
The defence ministry said it was evacuating villagers by sea as bright balls of orange flames tore through the hills encircling the plant.
Turkey has taken all necessary precautions to prevent any loss of life at the scene , the country’s communications director said early on Aug. 5.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Fahrettin Altun said all personnel have been evacuated as part of safety measures.
The regional municipality said “all explosive chemicals” and other hazardous material had been removed from the strategic site.
Local officials said hydrogen tanks used to cool the station had been emptied and filled with water as a precaution.
Turkish television images showed flames lapping power lines and running along the main road leading into town.
More than 180 wildfires have scorched huge swathes of forest and killed eight people since breaking out along almost the entire perimeter of Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean coasts.
The European Union’s satellite monitoring service said their “radiative power” – a measure of the fires’ intensity – “has reached unprecedented values in the entire dataset, which goes back to 2003”.
Turkey’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said temperatures in the Aegean city of Marmaris reached an all-time record of 45.5 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Farenheit) this week.
“We are fighting a very serious war,” the minister told reporters. “I urge everyone to be patient.”
Hurriyet Daily News