Turkey wildfires

European Union plans for the upcoming wildfire season include the deployment of hundreds of firefighters to the most vulnerable member states, as well as the creation of a firefighting aircraft fleet. 

Firefighters were struggling through the night to contain 82 wildfires across Greece, 64 of which started Sunday, the hottest day of the summer so far. Their ongoing efforts were without the help of firefighting planes and helicopters, which do not operate at night.

Turkey, which has held the country's biggest wildfire exercises in four provinces with 5,000 personnel, will fight the wildfires with nearly 500 experts who officials call the "forest commandos" for their advanced training on wildfires.

Forests and lands that were reduced to ashes as a result of the extreme wildfires that engulfed the southern province of Antalya and the southwestern province of Muğla in the summer of 2021 have been replanted in less than a year, daily Milliyet has reported.

A Turkish expert has advised authorities to sell all the trees burned in last month's wildfires that devastated forests in 53 provinces out of all 81 late July and use the money collected in the fight against future forest fires.

According to data from the General Directorate of Forestry, some 133,000 hectares of land have been burnt.