Turkey Saves Power Plant From 'unprecedented' Wildfires

Milas, Turkey, Aug 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Aug, 2021 ) :Rescuers used helicopters and water cannon Wednesday to beat back fires encircling a Turkish power plant in the second week of deadly blazes testing the leadership of President Recept Tayyip Erdogan.

More than 170 wildfires have scorched swathes of Turkey's southern coast and killed eight people since breaking out east of the Mediterranean vacation hotspot Antalya last Wednesday and then spreading west.

The blazes have destroyed pristine forests and thousands of cattle.

Their location around Turkey's main vacation destinations have also dented government hopes of a tourist-driven revival of the fragile economy.

The European Union's satellite monitoring service said their "radiative power" -- a measure of the fires' intensity -- "has reached unprecedented values in the entire dataset, which goes back to 2003".

The Turkish government appears to have been rattled by the scale and ferocity of the flames.

Its media watchdog on Tuesday warned broadcasters that they may be fined if they continue showing live footage of the blazes or air images of screaming people running for their lives.

Erdogan himself has been subjected to days of ridicule on social media for tossing out bags of tea while touring one of the affected regions under heavy police escort.

The opposition further accuses the powerful Turkish leader of being too slow to accept offers of foreign assistance -- including from regional rival Greece -- and failing to properly maintain firefighting planes.

Erdogan prepared to mount a political counterattack in a national television interview scheduled for Wednesday night.

Much of the latest public fear and anger has been directed at a fire that has been threatening the hills around a power plant in the Aegean Sea holiday resort town of Milas.