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Fires Engulf Türkiye’s Mediterranean Coast as Government Declares 2 Disaster Zones

People stand next to smoke rising from the wildfire in the Aksu district of Antalya, a Mediterranean city in southern Türkiye, July 25, 2025. (Reuters)
People stand next to smoke rising from the wildfire in the Aksu district of Antalya, a Mediterranean city in southern Türkiye, July 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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Fires Engulf Türkiye’s Mediterranean Coast as Government Declares 2 Disaster Zones

People stand next to smoke rising from the wildfire in the Aksu district of Antalya, a Mediterranean city in southern Türkiye, July 25, 2025. (Reuters)
People stand next to smoke rising from the wildfire in the Aksu district of Antalya, a Mediterranean city in southern Türkiye, July 25, 2025. (Reuters)

New wildfires broke out on Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast Friday, as the government declared two western provinces in the country to be disaster zones.

Images showed flames and smoke billowing into the sky close to high-rise apartment buildings in Antalya, where local and foreign visitors flock during the summer months.

Homes were evacuated in the city center and the outlying district of Aksu as the fire advanced, privately owned news agency DHA reported. Firefighters struggled to extinguish the blazes before strong winds could spread the fire, which closed a major coastal road.

Further along the coast, homes in the city of Manavgat were also threatened.

Local residents with hoses and buckets rushed to assist firefighters as water-dropping helicopters and planes also battled the flames. Police water cannons and municipal water trucks were also enlisted in the firefighting efforts.

Antalya Gov. Hulusi Sahin said that the fires were under control apart from one in Aksu, which was "showing a tendency to grow," and another in Gazipasa, east of Manavgat.

"The fires were truly disturbing and dangerous, because they occurred in city centers, among houses," he said. "We evacuated some of our homes ... There are no deaths or injuries."

At 46.1C (115F), July temperatures in Antalya city were the highest for the month since records began in 1930.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, meanwhile, said Friday that Izmir and Bilecik provinces had been declared "disaster areas affecting public life," one step below the most serious level of emergency.

Between June 27 and Thursday, residents from 120 neighborhoods nationwide were evacuated, Yerlikaya added, and more than 12,000 workers under the ministry’s authority, such as police and rescue staff, had fought the fires.

In a social media post, the minister said 311 homes had been destroyed or seriously damaged during the monthlong blazes and 85 temporary housing units were set up across three western provinces for those made homeless.

Speaking after Friday prayers, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Türkiye was "faced with a truly great disaster." He said that 25,000 personnel were fighting fires across the country, assisted by 27 planes, 105 helicopters and 6,000 ground vehicles.

Türkiye has faced widespread outbreaks of forest fires since late June. Thirteen people have died, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers killed Wednesday in a fire in Eskisehir, western Türkiye. The funerals for the 10 were on Thursday.

Temperatures above seasonal norms have been exacerbated by strong winds and dry conditions, resulting in dozens of wildfires.

East of Antalya, fires broke out in Adana and Mersin on Friday. Elsewhere in the country, firefighters continued battling blazes in Eskisehir and nearby Karabuk that have been raging for several days.

Albania battles fires

The heat wave in the eastern Mediterranean region saw 1,000 firefighters and soldiers battle flames in Albania as temperatures reached 42 C (107 F).

In the Albanian city of Elbasan, firefighters have been combating a weeklong blaze in the country’s central mountain forests. Fires have also broke out near the southern border with Greece.

Cyprus aftermath

In the aftermath of one of Cyprus’ worst wildfires in living memory, it wasn’t lost on Cypriot officials that climate change may have been a significant contributing factor to the pace and ferocity of the flames.

Both government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis and Fire Chief Nicos Longinos referred to the arid conditions, with temperatures hitting 44 C (111 F) and very strong winds that quickly overwhelmed fire crews.

Even 14 firefighting aircraft couldn’t douse the multiple, fast-moving fire fronts quickly enough.

Cyprus is in its third year of minimal winter rains on which it relies for drinking water and for agricultural purposes, even as the government is revving up additional desalination projects.

The fire that moved at breakneck speed left two dead, forced the evacuation of 16 communities, scorched dozens of homes and destroyed many orchards and farms.

Quizzed by a reporter about criticisms that the Fire Service didn’t move quickly enough, Longinos was on the verge of tears when he said that he and all his firefighters have taken an oath to "give their lives" if need be to save lives and property.

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Varieties

Rain Further Batters Storm-Hit Portugal, Thousands Evacuated

A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
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Rain Further Batters Storm-Hit Portugal, Thousands Evacuated

A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)

More ‌heavy rain flooded several rural areas in the north of storm-battered Portugal on Wednesday, leaving levees at risk of bursting around the medieval city of Coimbra and forcing authorities to evacuate about 3,000 residents as a precaution.

A succession of deadly storms has hammered mostly central and southern parts of the country since late January, blowing roofs off houses, flooding several towns and leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity for days. At least 15 people have died as a consequence of the storms, including indirect ‌victims.

As the ‌storms let up this week, a weather ‌phenomenon ⁠known as an "atmospheric river" - ⁠a wide corridor of concentrated water vapor carrying massive amounts of moisture from the tropics - brought new downpours, affecting the north to a greater extent.

RISK OF DAM OVERFLOWING

Municipal authorities in Coimbra ordered the precautionary evacuation late on Tuesday of around 3,000 people most at risk from the River Mondego bursting its banks, ⁠and the operation was still under way on ‌Wednesday, with police making door-to-door checks ‌and bussing residents to shelters.

Regional Civil Protection official Carlos Tavares ‌said on Wednesday the situation could worsen between late Wednesday ‌and midday Thursday, as the rain could cause the Aguieira dam, 35 km northeast of Coimbra, "to overflow, sweep away levees and trigger further flooding".

Part of Coimbra's ancient city wall, on a hillside in one ‌of Europe's oldest university towns and a UNESCO World Heritage site, collapsed, shutting the road below ⁠and forcing ⁠the closure of the municipal market, the city hall said.

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro was due in Coimbra to oversee the emergency response after Interior Minister Maria Lucia Amaral resigned following criticism from opposition parties and local communities over what they described as the authorities' slow and failed response to devastating Storm Kristin two weeks ago.

In central Portugal, just across the River Tagus from Lisbon, authorities evacuated the village of Porto Brandao due to the risk of landslides, and around 30 people were removed from their homes after a landslide in the neighboring beachside area of Caparica.

Varieties

Record Heat and Raging Fires Ring in 2026 Across the Southern Hemisphere 

A helicopter battles a forest fire in the Biobio region, where multiple wildfires have prompted emergency evacuations, in Florida, Chile, January 21, 2026. (Reuters)
A helicopter battles a forest fire in the Biobio region, where multiple wildfires have prompted emergency evacuations, in Florida, Chile, January 21, 2026. (Reuters)
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Record Heat and Raging Fires Ring in 2026 Across the Southern Hemisphere 

A helicopter battles a forest fire in the Biobio region, where multiple wildfires have prompted emergency evacuations, in Florida, Chile, January 21, 2026. (Reuters)
A helicopter battles a forest fire in the Biobio region, where multiple wildfires have prompted emergency evacuations, in Florida, Chile, January 21, 2026. (Reuters)

From Argentina to Australia to South Africa, record heat and raging wildfires are rampaging through the Southern Hemisphere at the start of 2026, with scientists predicting that even more extreme temperatures could lie ahead - and possibly another global annual high - after three of the hottest years on record.

In January, a record-setting heat dome enveloped Australia, sending temperatures near 50 degrees C (122 degrees F) while heat and catastrophic wildfires gripped parts of South America, setting remote parts of Argentina's Patagonia ablaze and killing 21 people in coastal towns in Chile. In addition, South Africa has been experiencing its worst wildfires in years.

The extremes are occurring even as the world remains under the cooling influence of a weak La Nina, a climate cycle marked by cooler waters in the central and eastern Pacific that began in December 2024. Despite this moderating factor, temperatures are reaching record highs in various locales.

"This means the effect of human-caused climate change is overwhelming natural variability," said climate scientist Theodore Keeping of Imperial College London and the international research collaboration World Weather Attribution, who specializes in research on wildfires and extreme heat.

"As we transition into a neutral or even El Nino phase, we'll expect the incidence of extreme heat events around the world to be further amplified," Keeping added.

El Nino typically has the opposite effect of La Nina, warming the central and eastern Pacific and boosting global temperatures.

This year is forecast to be about 1.46 degrees C (2.6 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels, which would make it the fourth consecutive year to be higher than 1.4 degrees C (2.5 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels, according to Adam Scaife, head of the long-range prediction at the United Kingdom's national weather ‌and climate service.

The 2015 ‌international climate treaty, known as the Paris Agreement, aimed to keep warming below 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels.

"If a big ‌El Nino ⁠were to develop ⁠quickly in 2026 then it's still possible 2026 could be a record," Scaife said. The World Meteorological Organization said last month that the past three years were the warmest on record.

FIRE RAGES FROM WOODS TO WATER

While most wildfires are caused by human activity, they are also a natural part of many ecosystems. Persistent heat, drought and extreme temperatures, however, are turning once-manageable fires into increasingly uncontrollable and destructive events.

Many ecosystems are not adapted to such hot, dry conditions, allowing fires to grow larger and more intense, often causing permanent damage, Keeping said.

The fires that burned through Argentina's Los Alerces National Park illustrate the shift, according to meteorologist Carolina Vera of the Center for Ocean and Atmospheric Research at the University of Buenos Aires.

The park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is home to trees that have lived more than 3,000 years.

Local officials determined that a lightning strike caused the fire. The blaze initially was under control. But Vera said a heat wave and strong winds caused it to spread about 20 km (12 miles) in a single day, making it the worst wildfire there ⁠in two decades.

The region has been drought-stricken since 2008. Temperatures during the first two weeks of January were about 6 degrees C (11 degrees F) above ‌normal.

"These fires used to burn themselves out and form part of the forest's natural dynamics," Vera said.

"This is an example of ‌how climate change can alter a natural fire, because it appeared to be caused by lightning," Vera said.

There are no towns in that remote area.

Fires erupted in the southern part of neighboring Chile later in January and ‌crossed into the greater Concepcion area, the country's third-largest metropolitan region, destroying hundreds of homes and killing 21 people in coastal communities.

Keeping said the blazes mirrored recent disasters in places such as ‌Los Angeles, Athens and the Hawaiian island of Maui.

"Where there's been the greatest loss of life, it almost always comes down to evacuation being difficult or impossible," Keeping said. "That's particularly true in regions affected by strong downslope winds toward the coast."

WHIRLWINDS OF FIRE

About 80% of Punta de Parra, a small coastal town in southern Chile surrounded by hills and forests, was destroyed.

Punta de Parra residents said they had little time to evacuate. Doralisa Silva, 34, said she heard about a fire in a nearby community the night the blaze reached the town.

"Out of nowhere, the forest started burning and all the houses caught fire," Silva said. "The fire was on us in the blink ‌of an eye. There was nothing we could do."

Silva said her family was among the last to try to flee because they had no vehicle. Silva said flames blocked their exit as embers rained down as she and her partner Hermes Barrientos fled with their ⁠2-year-old daughter.

Barrientos said winds of nearly 70 km ⁠per hour (43.5 mph) whipped through the area, creating whirlwinds of fire that spread to the beach and trapped residents. The family and others eventually found refuge in a large dirt field at the center of town, and spent the night watching their community burn.

A FUTURE FILLED WITH FIRES

Record-breaking heat in southeastern Australia has also fueled the country's worst fires since the deadly 2019-2020 season, when 33 people were killed.

In addition, the 2025-2026 fire season has been the most severe in South Africa in a decade, according to officials, killing wildlife and hitting tourist destinations such as Mossel Bay and Franschhoek.

"The hot, dry and windy conditions that drive the most extreme wildfires are becoming more intense and more likely," Keeping said. "And it's happening all around the world."

The Southern Hemisphere has warmed by about 0.15 to 0.17 degrees C (0.27 to 0.30 degrees F) per decade since the 1970s, compared to 0.25 to 0.30 degrees C (0.45 to 0.54 degrees F) in the Northern Hemisphere - largely because its vast oceans absorb heat more slowly and because of Antarctic meltwater.

Still, southern land masses are now warming at similar rates to northern land masses, and contrasts between warming land and cold meltwater can intensify weather patterns, leading to prolonged heat waves, droughts or flooding.

Keeping said adaptation is critical, including authorities managing vegetation near cities and developing effective evacuation plans, and builders using fire-resistant materials. Wildfires are inflicting mounting economic damage. A 2026 report by insurance broker Aon estimated global insured wildfire losses at $42 billion in 2025, up from an average of $4 billion annually between 2000 and 2024. The Los Angeles fires last year were the costliest on record.

Swiss Re, the world's second-largest reinsurer, found that wildfires accounted for about 1% of global insured losses from natural disasters before 2015, but now represent 7%, with economic losses linked to fires rising by about $170 million a year since 1970.

"You actually cannot stop a lot of these really large intense wildfires. They're simply too big," Keeping said.

The most important way forward, Keeping said, is to "have a serious conversation about limiting future climate change to prevent this issue from worsening."

Varieties

Study: Noisy Humans Harm Birds and Affect Breeding Success

FILE - Birdhouses line a path outside a resident's room at the Ida Culver House Ravenna, a senior independent and assisted living home in Seattle, on May 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
FILE - Birdhouses line a path outside a resident's room at the Ida Culver House Ravenna, a senior independent and assisted living home in Seattle, on May 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
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Study: Noisy Humans Harm Birds and Affect Breeding Success

FILE - Birdhouses line a path outside a resident's room at the Ida Culver House Ravenna, a senior independent and assisted living home in Seattle, on May 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
FILE - Birdhouses line a path outside a resident's room at the Ida Culver House Ravenna, a senior independent and assisted living home in Seattle, on May 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

Noise pollution is affecting bird behavior across the globe, disrupting everything from courtship songs to the ability to find food and avoid predators, a large-scale new analysis showed on Wednesday.

Researchers reviewed nearly four decades of scientific work and found that noises made by humans were interfering with the lives of birds on six continents and having "strong negative effects" on reproduction success.

Previous research on individual species has shown that single sources of anthropogenic noise -- such as planes, traffic and construction -- can affect birds as it does other wildlife.

But for this study, the team performed a wider analysis by pooling data published since 1990 across 160 bird species to see if any broader trends could be established.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found clear evidence of a "pervasive" impact of noise pollution on birds worldwide.

"We found that noise significantly impacts communication risk behaviors, foraging, aggression and physiology and had a strong effect on habitat use and a negative impact on reproduction," AFP quoted it as saying.

This is because birds rely on acoustic information to survive, making them particularly vulnerable to the modern din produced by cars, machinery and urban life.

"They use song to find mates, calls to warn of predators, and chicks make begging calls to let their parents know they're hungry," Natalie Madden, who led the research while at the University of Michigan, said in a statement.

"So if there's loud noise in the environment, can they still hear signals from their own species?"

In some cases, noise pollution interrupted mating displays, caused males to change their courtship songs, or masked messages between chicks and parents.

The study included many common species such as European robins and starlings, house sparrows, and great tits.

The response varied between species, with birds that nest close to the ground suffering greater reproductive harm, while those using open nests experienced stronger effects on growth.

Birds living in urban areas, meanwhile, tended to have higher levels of stress hormones than those outside of cities.

Some 61 percent of the world's bird species have declining populations, mostly due to habitat loss driven by expanding agriculture and logging, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said in October.

The study authors said that noise pollution was an "underappreciated consequence" of humanity's impact on nature, especially compared to biodiversity loss and climate change.

But some relatively simple fixes could make a big difference for birds, they said.

Madden told AFP that shifting from noisier cars and landscaping tools such as mowers and leaf blowers to electric-powered alternatives was one idea.

Another could be "running machinery outside peak breeding seasons, avoiding activity when birds are migrating through an area, or shifting construction away from habitats that support vulnerable species", she added.

Buildings could also be adapted to muffle sound in the same way they are constructed to improve visibility and minimize bird collisions, said the study's senior author Neil Carter, from the University of Michigan.

"So many of the things we're facing with biodiversity loss just feel inexorable and massive in scale, but we know how to use different materials and how to put things up in different ways to block sound," he said.