The fire reaches the power plant – residents fly

On Wednesday evening, Mayor Mohamed Tokat tweeted that flames had entered the same facility and during the night, hundreds of residents had been evacuated by sea.

Firefighters and police were also forced to flee the area when the flames spread over the surrounding hills, according to an AFP correspondent.

When the alarm rang, residents of the area had to gather their most important belongings and head to the nearby port of Oren, where they were allowed to board the Coast Guard speedboats.

All explosives and dangerous chemicals have been removed from the power plant, according to regional authorities. Among other things, the hydrogen tanks used in the cooling plant were emptied and filled with water.

– But there is a danger that the fire will spread to the thousands of tons of coal inside, says regional mayor Osman Gurun.

However, as flames approached the power plant earlier this week, a large part of the coal was moved to a warning site five kilometers from the power plant, according to Turkish media.

The forest fires that now erupted in Turkey over a week ago are touted as the worst in several generations. At least 180 fires destroyed large areas of green space. So far, eight people and thousands of animals have died and thousands of people have been evacuated.