A right now thread

[Yambo]

Lots of reports about fires near Bodrum, Datça and other places and also reports that the fires are deliberate - started by the PKK.

Local villages, Dereözü, Osmaniye and Bayır have been badly hit. No word on casualties yet..Turunç, where I live has been very lucky as the wind was in our favour. If it was deliberate someone needs topping.

[Count Steer]

Lots of reports about fires near Bodrum, Datça and other places and also reports that the fires are deliberate - started by the PKK.

Where are the reports that it's the PKK coming from?

[Yambo]

I asked the same question CS, people telling me that 4 people arrested in Marmaris and lots of Turks saying it's PKK. But, I've seen no official reports, just rumour.

Hopefully, things, and the sky, will be clearer in the morning.

[Pirahna]

I asked the same question CS, people telling me that 4 people arrested in Marmaris and lots of Turks saying it's PKK. But, I've seen no official reports, just rumour.

Hopefully, things, and the sky, will be clearer in the morning.

Just googled PKK and it auto fills the fires bit, so lots of people checking the rumours.

[Yambo]

A lovely morning here now, no smoke in the sky but some helicopter activity, damping down I guess.

Headline on the news coverage last night was "Are the fires sabotage?" Far too many of them to be cigarette butt's but if the government want us to believe it was deliberate they'll find some evidence. People in this area, Muğla province, don't trust the government and tend to not believe the propaganda but it's those same people who are immediately blaming the PKK. It'll make it easy for Recep.

Electricity is still off, 21 hours now so I guess I'll have to do some cooking and then re-freeze stuff. It's still not clear about the local villages but we were lucky, mostly from the wind direction and strength. Others not so lucky but again, no word yet of any casualties. Off to check some news channels now on my phone.

[wheelnut]

A lovely morning here now, no smoke in the sky but some helicopter activity, damping down I guess.

Headline on the news coverage last night was "Are the fires sabotage?" Far too many of them to be cigarette butt's but if the government want us to believe it was deliberate they'll find some evidence. People in this area, Muğla province, don't trust the government and tend to not believe the propaganda but it's those same people who are immediately blaming the PKK. It'll make it easy for Recep.

Electricity is still off, 21 hours now so I guess I'll have to do some cooking and then re-freeze stuff. It's still not clear about the local villages but we were lucky, mostly from the wind direction and strength. Others not so lucky but again, no word yet of any casualties. Off to check some news channels now on my phone.

One young lad killed in marmaris. In Icmeler there are a fair few houses damaged that were close to the forest in the old village. Not sure on Marmaris/Armatulan.

[Yambo]

I'm down in the village, still no electric and Internet hit and miss.

We now have fire on the hills immediately above us and it appears to be creeping down the hill. The helicopter crews are working their arses off presumably with worse areas. Might go out and sit on the boat if it comes closer. I have gas and electric out there, just need to take water and some food.

Lots of devastation all over SW Turkey. Not good.

[Count Steer]

I asked the same question CS, people telling me that 4 people arrested in Marmaris and lots of Turks saying it's PKK. But, I've seen no official reports, just rumour.

Hopefully, things, and the sky, will be clearer in the morning.

Just googled PKK and it auto fills the fires bit, so lots of people checking the rumours.

I had a delve around and wasn't (sadly) surprised by the way the Turkish media are spinning everything. Even if it's nothing to do with the PKK it will be pinned on them or some Facebook presence 'affiliated' to them*. (If it was them, then they should be shot of course).

There's one 'news aggregator' called 'toysmatrix' (!!) that appears to aggregate then completely lard everything with government propaganda. They don't cite their sources either.

Dunno what Attaturk would make of it all.

* Wouldn't Facebook have to take down anything claiming to be affiliated to a proscribed terrorist group?

[Skub]

I'm down in the village, still no electric and Internet hit and miss.

We now have fire on the hills immediately above us and it appears to be creeping down the hill. The helicopter crews are working their arses off presumably with worse areas. Might go out and sit on the boat if it comes closer. I have gas and electric out there, just need to take water and some food.

Lots of devastation all over SW Turkey. Not good.

Sounds rough. Here's hoping it's brought under control soon.

[Count Steer]

Wow! Just looking at footage. Marmaris looks like the gates of hell! Smoke is reaching Cyprus. Fingers crossed for all the folk involved.
It's suggested that Greece, Bulgaria and other places in the area are currently tinder boxes too.

Blimey!

[wheelnut]

I had a delve around and wasn't (sadly) surprised by the way the Turkish media are spinning everything. Even if it's nothing to do with the PKK it will be pinned on them or some Facebook presence 'affiliated' to them*. (If it was them, then they should be shot of course).

There's one 'news aggregator' called 'toysmatrix' (!!) that appears to aggregate then completely lard everything with government propaganda. They don't cite their sources either.

Dunno what Attaturk would make of it all.

* Wouldn't Facebook have to take down anything claiming to be affiliated to a proscribed terrorist group?

It does fit. They do have a history of setting forest fires. That’s not evidence of course but the coincidence of so many at the same time does raise questions.

You do get regular forest fires in that area but that’s the worst i’ve ever seen in 20 years. It’s heading over the hill towards yambo at the moment and it looks as though his village has been evacuated.

[wheelnut]

First one is taken from icmeler (out apt just to the left of shot, with turunc over the hill. Second one taken from the sea in between icmeler and turunc.

[Yambo]

Hi everyone, your concern is appreciated. Yesterday morning things changed and suddenly there were fires on the hillside above my house. The village has hills on 3 sides and the sea to the east. The hills behind the North corner where I live are steep with a lot of cliffs and re-entrants and the fires were on the edges of the cliffs. Down lower though I am surrounded by pine trees which go off like an oxy-acetylene torch.

I don't panic easy and running fuel tankers in the past and seaman trained I've done a bit of fire training so didn't rush around but checked the bag I'd already packed, added some bits, closed up the house and swam out to the boat. The lovely M joined me and we spent the evening watching the fires remain static a couple of hundred metres above my gaff.

A lot of what was burning was scrub so smouldering but around 6 am some pines over the top ridge caught and went a bit spectacular. The helicopter had just started working and dumped 3 bucket loads on it but there were other priorities I guess because they went elsewhere. It picked up again and the Russian or Ukrainian plane done 3 passes dropping a lot of water on the area. It's still burning but at the moment it's still well up the hill and around where I live is still green and lovely. I'll sleep on the boat again tonight and until it's all under control.

It could all go pear shaped of course if the wind changes but it's only things. I probably have too many things anyway. If this all goes down as terrorism I may not get an insurance claim so trust me this is just a natural event. Wear your masks

[636mick]

Very scary. Hope you guys are ok.
Mick

[Yambo]

Good morning all. Right now, I'm sat on my boat with my 2nd cup of tea for the morning. It's going to be a hot one today - 42°C which we could do without but hey ho, que sera sera.

I've slept on the boat for 3 nights now as a precaution.if the forest around my house goes up in the night I might lose the internet! Every night we've watched fires burning in the hills and Saturday night we watched a wall of fires slowly progress from the west, down the hills towards what we would call the back of the village. Every night there have been fires in the hills and gullies above my house.

Yesterday was awful. The wall of fires we'd watched was attacked by the helicpter boys and they damped it down but when they went off to refuel it decided enough was enough and it raged. Despite the best efforts of the returning helis it reached the village but both paid and volunteer firefighters had been damping down houses and trees on the edge of the forest and it was stopped. Last night the whole area was covered in smoke - Mordor style but very little actual fire to be seen. A couple of small fires in the forest around my house had been successfully tackled by locals.

I slept well last night and woke to a clear sky, no smoke, some smouldering around the back of the village and some fires higher up. A helicopter arrived, dumped some water on the worst of those then disappeared to the south where this is a bigger problem at Kumlubűk. We all have our fingers crossed that it won't flare up again today.

It has been the sruff of nightmares. Friends and others have lost their homes, a lot of our beautiful forests have gone ( but will recover I'm sure) the thosands of bee hives that are all over the forests are destroyed, untold numbers of wildlife will have perished but thankfully there has been very little loss of human life. In Turunç we have suffered a lot less than other places. This is partly because of geography, partly down to benign winds and paetly down to a huge effort by firefighters who had the time to prepare - because of the other two reasons.

We are well, the village is quiet after a few hundred people evacuated yesterday but I guess they'll be back today. We had been ordered to prepare for evacuation about 4 pm yesterday but most of the locals refused to leave their village and fought the fires.

Overused sometimes, the word heroes, but not here and now. Fucking heroes.

[Potter]

I'm sure there is an obvious answer to this but is it possible to put fire breaks in between the houses and forrest? Surely it's worth stripping the trees back a couple of hundred metres so there is nothing to burn near the houses? You might still have to leave because of smoke but at least the houses wouldn't burn down.

[Yambo]

I'm sure there is an obvious answer to this but is it possible to put fire breaks in between the houses and forrest? Surely it's worth stripping the trees back a couple of hundred metres so there is nothing to burn near the houses? You might still have to leave because of smoke but at least the houses wouldn't burn down.

It's a bureaucratic nightmare mate. This is a National Park because of the pristine pine forests and the pine honey business. The forestry department effectively 'own' most of the land so where they can, people will build as close as they can to the forrst. All of the villages, this one included were here long before the Forestry Directorate but trying to get hold of that land? Forget it.

An example. We have two cemeteries here now, the regular local one amd a small 'foreigners' plot. The local cemetery is lovely, landscaped with private money but exclusively Turkish and Muslim. I have, for a long time wanted to get the ex-pat plot tidied up and landscaped so I spoke with the guy who paid for the landscaping. He's a retired professor who wanted the place nice after he buried his son there a few years ago. He buried his wife in the same plot last week. He did a bit of investagive work and was unable to find out who owns the land the ex-pat plot sits on - is it council land or forestry? If it is council land no problem but if it is forestry then they might just say you'll have to move all the graves. It is on balance better to let sleeping dogs lie..

Currently money is being raised to support local firefighting efforts and I have a bit of respect from the locals to allow me a say in how the money is spent. It won't be to try and buy forestry land for firebreaks though, thats for sure.

The threat of forest fires is always here of course and accepted because itis grest to live in places like this but these fires this year are unprecedented. So many over such a large area in such a short period of time. We are not getting unusual temperatures, theres no real changes this year except Covid and no European tourists. Are they arson? I don't know but I hope not. It is mind blowingly stupid to burn forests. They are unprecedented though. In the previous 15 years I've lived here, we've never had a local fire and I can only remember 3 others in the Marmaris area.

Turks are notoriously fatalistic. Your house can be replaced. You die, we will bury you and we are all going to die.

[Potter]

Turks are notoriously fatalistic. Your house can be replaced. You die, we will bury you and we are all going to die.

That's a regional thing I think, the common answer to an issue where someone might die is "Inshallah".

I never thought about fires before, when buying property I always consider flooding, urban development, the atmosphere of the local area, etc, but never thought about fires.

Fingers crossed for you mate.

[Yambo]

Turks are notoriously fatalistic. Your house can be replaced. You die, we will bury you and we are all going to die.

That's a regional thing I think, the common answer to an issue where someone might die is "Inshallah".

I never thought about fires before, when buying property I always consider flooding, urban development, the atmosphere of the local area, etc, but never thought about fires.

Fingers crossed for you mate.

Thanks. Sixteen years ago, I told my missus that the house she wanted was a big no-no. Pine trees were brushing the roof, literally the edge of the forest. The village, on the plateau between our village and Içmeler is called Dereözü. Friends who live there have, in the last couple of days lost their homes. People are saying Dereözü is 'gone' but I don't know how bad it actually is. Other villages are also 'gone' butI won't know for sure until I can get out and see for myself.

I know your not the sort to panic or that much is going to scare you but believe me fire is fuckin' frightening and wild fires even more so - so easy to get cut off from others. The heat, the smoke, the sheer force of a pine tree virtually exploding beside you... it is fucking scary.

[Potter]

Thanks. Sixteen years ago, I told my missus that the house she wanted was a big no-no. Pine trees were brushing the roof, literally the edge of the forest. The village, on the plateau between our village and Içmeler is called Dereözü. Friends who live there have, in the last couple of days lost their homes. People are saying Dereözü is 'gone' but I don't know how bad it actually is. Other villages are also 'gone' butI won't know for sure until I can get out and see for myself.

I know your not the sort to panic or that much is going to scare you but believe me fire is fuckin' frightening and wild fires even more so - so easy to get cut off from others. The heat, the smoke, the sheer force of a pine tree virtually exploding beside you... it is fucking scary.

Losing my house would scare me, losing your home strikes very deeply at the core of a human being.

I expect that being in the grip of a fire would be terrifying in the true sense of the word, I've only been properly terrified a couple of times in my life and it rips the energy right out of you, it can be a soul destroying experience. I was in a house fire as a kid, my dad got us out ok and I was too young to understand how dangerous it actually was, so it wasn't a defining moment, but it was scary, I remember feeling like we were facing an omnipotent malevolent personality and I don't think the feeling would be lessened any now I'm older - if you combined that with the immediacy of being right in the thick of it whilst things were exploding around me then I'd be shitting it.