ISTANBUL: Wildfires that have engulfed Turkiye for weeks threatened the country’s fourth-largest city early Sunday, causing hundreds of people to flee their homes.
Overnight fires in the forested mountains surrounding Bursa in northwest Turkiye spread rapidly, bringing a red glow to the night sky over the city’s eastern suburbs.
Bursa governor’s office said in a statement Sunday that 1,765 people had been safely evacuated from villages to the northeast as more than 1,100 firefighters battled the flames. The highway linking Bursa to the capital, Ankara, was closed as surrounding forests burned.
Orhan Saribal, an opposition parliamentarian for the province, described the scene as “an apocalypse.”
By morning, lessening winds brought some respite to firefighters, who continued efforts to bring down the flames. However, TV footage revealed an ashen landscape where farms and pine forests had earlier stood.
