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The forest wildfires have reached the thermal power plant in Milas, Turkey. Authorities have been expecting this to happen a few days ago as the wildfires raged on across Turkey. The coal-fired power station has been completely evacuated. The mayor of the town of Milas announced that the fire reached the thermal power plant.

Flames have entered the thermal power plant.

Muhammet Tokat, mayor of the town of Milas

This comes amid the country’s worst blazes in at least a decade. Around 95,000 hectares have been burned so far. To put this into perspective, a total of 13,516 hectares of land was burned between 2008 and 2020. Eight people have been reported dead since the fires started last Wednesday, and thousands have been evacuated. Extreme heat continued to batter Southern Europe causing a number of forest fires in the region. Yesterday, Greece reported a record temperature of 47.1 degrees Celsius, the worst heatwave since 1987. It is not far away from the highest ever recorded in Europe.

Temperatures in several cities in Turkey have soared above 40 degrees Celsius on Monday causing a record electricity consumption and eventually leading to blackouts in Istanbul and Ankara.The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been widely criticized recently as it emerged that the country actually has no water-bombing aircraft, necessary to contain the fires in mountainous regions. The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) criticized the Turkish President that it dismantled the infrastructure of a semi-public organization, as in the past Turkey actually owned water-bombers. In a bid to help with the worsening situation in Turkey, the European Union sent three firefighting planes. Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Iran also sent some firefighting planes to the country.

Last Monday, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that authorities are currently investigating the cause of the fires, as even though experts are pointing out climate change, they believe that it might also be caused intentionally by Kurdish militants.

More details to follow.

Published by truthisacommodity

Residing on the small island of Malta, I have developed a keen interest in foreign politics and science and in bringing truth to my audience by providing daily news! Email: info@whatnownews24.com View all posts by truthisacommodity