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Worldnews

Izmir, Villages In Turkiye Affected By Wildfires Now Under Control

Three have died as blaze continues to rage in southern coastal area of Dortyol in Hatay province, which borders Syria. A forestry worker injured in a wildfire in the western Turkish province of Izmir has died from his injuries, raising the death toll in recent days from the fires to three, as the blaze in villages of the Odemis district was brought under control but emergency crews continued to battle one in a province bordering Syria. Worker Ragip Sahin “who was injured while fighting the fire in Odemis and was being treated in hospital, has died”, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said on Saturday in a post on X. Yumakli also said the blaze in Odemis had been brought under control by Friday evening alongside six other wildfires, mostly in western and central Turkiye. He added that firefighters were still trying to control a blaze in the southern coastal area of Dortyol in Hatay province. Turkiye was mostly spared the recent searing heatwaves that engulfed the rest of southern Europe, but firefighters have battled more than 600 fires since June 26 in the drought-hit nation, which have been prompted by high winds. The fire in Odemis, about 100km (60 miles) east of the resort city of Izmir, had on Thursday killed a bedridden 81-year-old man and a backhoe operator who died while helping firefighting efforts. In a video on X, Odemis Mayor Mustafa Turan said the fire had ravaged about 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres) of land. “The fire came violently to this area, there is nothing left to burn. About 5,000 hectares was reduced to ashes,” said Turan. On Monday, rescuers evacuated more than 50,000 people to escape a string of fires. “According to the authorities, the fires that lasted for four days started in : Tosunlar village … you can still see smoke coming out from this evacuated village,” said Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Odemis. “Nothing is left in this village, no one is living here and there is nothing left to reside in. After the fires erupted due to electrical cables in this village, it quickly spread to the nearby villages on this side and then to other villages. Just on the first night [of the wildfires], authorities had to evacuate five villages,” she added. “For citizens of Turkiye living in the valleys and forests, life is becoming more difficult every year as climate change brings more wildfires. And this year, wildfires came earlier than expected to Turkiye,” said Koseoglu. In the meantime, in Hatay province, which borders Syria, emergency crews continued fighting a blaze that broke out Friday afternoon in the Dortyol district near a residential area and rapidly intensified due to strong winds, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Some 920 homes had been evacuated as a precaution against the advancing flames, Governor Mustafa Musatli said late Friday. Turkiye also sent two firefighting aircraft on Saturday to help neighbouring Syria battle wildfires in its northwest Latakia region. Eleven fire trucks and water support vehicles were also dispatched, according to Raed al-Saleh, the Syrian Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management. Turkiye’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 44 suspects have been detained in relation to 65 fires that broke out across the country, which led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and damaged some 200 homes. According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) website, there have been 96 wildfires in Turkiye this year that have ravaged more than 49,652 hectares (122,700 acres) of land. Experts say human-driven climate change is causing more frequent and intense wildfires and other natural disasters, and have warned Turkiye to take measures to tackle the problem. Follow Al Jazeera English:...

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Healthwatch

Wildfires: How To Cope When Smoke Affects Air Quality And Health

Smoke from regional wildfires endangers health even for those not directly in the path of fire.

How does wildfire smoke affect air quality?

How does wildfire smoke affect our health?

Who needs to be especially careful?

What can you do to prepare for wildfire emergencies?

Create an evacuation plan for your family before a wildfire occurs.

Make sure that you have several days on hand of medications, water, and food that doesn’t need to be cooked. This will help if you need to leave suddenly due to a wildfire or another natural disaster.

Regularly check this fire and smoke map, which shows current wildfire conditions and has links to state advisories.

Follow alerts from local officials if you are in the region of an active fire.

What steps can you take to lower health risks during poor air quality days?

Stay aware of air quality.AirNow.gov shares real-time air quality risk category for your area accompanied by activity guidance. When recommended, stay indoors, close doors, windows, and any outdoor air intake vents.

Consider buying an air purifier. This is also important even when there are no regional wildfires if you live in a building that is in poor condition. The EPA recommends avoiding air cleaners that generate ozone, which is also a pollutant.

Understand your HVAC system if you have one. The quality and cleanliness of your filters counts, so choose high-efficiency filters if possible, and replace these as needed. It’s also important to know if your system has outdoor air intake vents.

Avoid creating indoor pollution. That means no smoking, no vacuuming, and no burning of products like candles or incense. Avoid frying foods or using gas stoves, especially if your stove is not well ventilated.

Make a “clean room.” Choose a room with fewer doors and windows. Run an air purifier that is the appropriate size for this room, especially if you are not using central AC to keep cool.

Minimize outdoor time and wear a mask outside. Again, ensuring that you have several days of medications and food that doesn’t need to be cooked will help. If you must go outdoors, minimize time and level of activity. A well-fitted N95 or KN95 mask or P100 respirator can help keep you from breathing in small particles floating in smoky air.

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Instablog9ja

Woman Shares How Her Genius 5-year-old Daughter Found A Way To Secretly Extend Her Screen Time

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Worldnews

Israeli Drone Attacks In Southern Lebanon Kill One, Injure Several People

Three Israeli attacks hit Bint Jbeil, Shebaa and Chaqra. Israel has carried out four drone attacks on towns in southern Lebanon, resulting in a death and several injured, in the latest wave of near-daily Israeli violations of the November ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah. An “Israeli enemy drone attack on a vehicle” in the Saf al-Hawa area in the city of Bint Jbeil “killed one person and wounded two others”, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said in a statement on Saturday carried by the official National News Agency (NNA), noting the toll was expected to rise. A second attack in the Bint Jbeil area followed. Earlier Saturday, the ministry also reported that a separate Israeli drone attack wounded one person in Shebaa, with the NNA saying that raid hit a house. Shebaa is located across two steep, rocky mountainsides that straddle Lebanon’s borders with Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel also launched a drone attack on the town of Chaqra, in the Bint Jbeil District. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said two people were wounded in the attack. بالفيديو: جريحان جراء الغارة على سيارة في بلدة شقرا https://t.co/nFqlLDgefI pic.twitter.com/iO1vlgQbh7 — Cedar News (@cedar_news) July 5, 2025 Translation: Video: Two injured due to the air raid on a car in the town of Chaqra.  Israel has kept up its bombardment of Lebanon on a near daily basis, despite a November 27 US-brokered ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, including an intensive period of the war that left the Iran-aligned group severely weakened. Israel says its air raids are targeting officials and facilities of Hezbollah and other groups. Hezbollah has claimed only one strike fired across the border since the ceasefire. Most of the Israeli strikes have been in southern Lebanon, but Israel has also struck Beirut’s southern suburbs several times since the ceasefire, destroying residential buildings and prompting panic and chaos among residents fleeing the area. On Thursday, an Israeli strike on a vehicle at the southern entrance of Beirut, close to the country’s only commercial airport, killed one man and wounded three other people, Lebanon said, as the Israeli army claimed it hit a “terrorist” working for Iran. Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani River, about 30km (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region. Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country but has kept them in five locations in southern Lebanon that it deems strategic. Israel has warned that it will keep attacking Lebanon until Hezbollah has been disarmed. Nearly 250 people have been killed and 609 wounded in Israeli attacks in Lebanon between November 28 – the day after the ceasefire took effect – and the end of June, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. A United States envoy is expected in Beirut early next week to discuss with Lebanon’s leadership efforts to pressure Hezbollah to relinquish its arms to the state. Hezbollah has rejected a US proposal to disarm by November, calling it “suicidal” amid daily Israeli attacks. Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun has repeatedly called on the US and France to rein in Israel’s attacks, noting that disarming Hezbollah is a “sensitive, delicate issue”. Follow Al Jazeera English:...