Active fires in Antalya's Kaş district and Muğla province forced evacuations and highway closures as extreme heat fanned blazes across six provinces.
Firefighters were still battling active blazes across several regions of Turkey on Thursday, with fires burning in parts of Antalya and across Muğla province — known for some of the country's most visited resorts — after breaking out on Wednesday during extreme summer heat.
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Agriculture and Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumaklı said fires in Yalova's Armutlu, Kütahya's Domaniç and Altıntaş, and in Çanakkale had been fully brought under control. The regions of Antalya, Muğla and Balıkesir remained under threat.
The UK Foreign Office's standing travel advice notes that wildfires are a regular feature of Turkish summers — running roughly from June to October and peaking in July and August — without issuing a blanket warning against travel to Antalya, Muğla or İzmir.
As of Wednesday, Turkey had no active nationwide wildfire emergency, with recent fires, including those in Antalya's Kaş district, contained within hours of breaking out.
However, travellers heading to the region this week should be aware of specific disruptions.
The Fethiye–Antalya highway was temporarily closed due to smoke from the Seydikemer fire and later reopened under controlled conditions.
Access to the ancient ruins at Olympos in Antalya province was closed.
Kaş, a popular diving and boat-trip destination on the Lycian coast, has an active fire in the surrounding woodland.
Homes destroyed, farmland in peril
The most serious active fire is in Seydikemer, a district in the hills between Fethiye and Marmaris. The blaze started on farmland on Wednesday morning and spread into woodland.
Forty-five patients were evacuated from the local state hospital and transferred to nearby facilities.
Across six affected neighbourhoods, 408 homes were evacuated and 703 people along with around 100 animals were moved to safety. Fifty-five buildings were damaged, some completely destroyed.
More than 25 aircraft, 410 ground vehicles and over 1,100 personnel were deployed to the area.
In Kumluca, a district south of Antalya city on the road toward Kaş and the Lycian coast, a fire left 10 homes unusable. Crews brought the main blaze under control but were continuing cooling operations on Thursday.
Five separate fires broke out in Balıkesir province, which sits between İzmir and the Dardanelles coast, on Wednesday.
The most significant was in Altınoluk, a seaside town on the Aegean known for its olive groves, near the ancient site of Antandros. The fire grew rapidly in wind and threatened residential areas, prompting the evacuation of 210 homes.
The Gömeç fire, in the same province, was still active on Thursday evening. Six aircraft, five helicopters and dozens of fire trucks were deployed across the province.
Turkey's Aegean and Mediterranean coasts are vulnerable to wildfire each summer. A combination of prolonged drought, temperatures regularly exceeding 40C in July and August, low humidity and strong seasonal winds — particularly the dry, northerly Etesian winds known as the meltemi — creates conditions in which fires can spread rapidly through pine and scrub forests.