Teacher from Aberdeen caught up in Turkish wildfires

T

An Aberdeen woman has described her terror after being caught up in major wildfires in south-western Turkey.

Eight people have died and hundreds have been evacuated as nearly 100 separate blazes hit tourist resorts and villages on Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean coasts.

Amy Hutchinson works as a teacher in the town of Içmeler near the resort of Marmaris.

The 26-year-old said she had “never been so scared” when facing the fires.

Ms Hutchinson was forced out of her home on Thursday but returned the next day.

Then and now: The burning issue of wildfires
The fires closest to her apartment have since started again.

She told BBC Scotland: “We are completely surrounded by greenery here in Içmeler and Marmaris. The fires started and it’s just not stopping.

“It just happened so quickly – within 10 minutes we were completely surrounded by red fire. I’ve never been so scared.”

She added: “We left five minutes before they told everyone to evacuate because we could see it was getting very bad. It was completely around us.

“It looked like a war zone. The sky was completely red. The ash was like snow falling on to the ground.”

Ms Hutchinson and many people in the town congregated on its main beach and then got a boat to Marmaris to be safer.

The fires, which have been burning since Wednesday, have left eight people dead.

Investigators are trying to establish the cause of the fires.

About the author

Olivia Wilson
By Olivia Wilson

Categories

Get in touch

Content and images available on this website is supplied by contributors. As such we do not hold or accept liability for the content, views or references used. For any complaints please contact adelinedarrow@gmail.com. Use of this website signifies your agreement to our terms of use. We do our best to ensure that all information on the Website is accurate. If you find any inaccurate information on the Website please us know by sending an email to adelinedarrow@gmail.com and we will correct it, where we agree, as soon as practicable. We do not accept liability for any user-generated or user submitted content – if there are any copyright violations please notify us at adelinedarrow@gmail.com – any media used will be removed providing proof of content ownership can be provided. For any DMCA requests under the digital millennium copyright act
Please contact: adelinedarrow@gmail.com with the subject DMCA Request.