The forest fire that started two days ago in the Menteşe district of Muğla, southwestern Türkiye, was brought under control on Monday morning after approximately 43 hours of intense effort. The blaze burned 200 hectares of land and destroyed over 800 beehives.
A fire broke out in the forest near the Sarnıç neighborhood of Menteşe district at around 1 p.m. two days ago. After the residents reported the fire, six airplanes, 15 helicopters, nearly 150 fire trucks, around 700 forest workers, including volunteers, one sea vessel and more than 25 heavy machines were dispatched to the area. The fire was fought both by air and on the ground.
Forest General Manager Bekir Karacabey, Muğla Governor Idris Akbıyık, along with Deputy General Manager Kenan Akduman and Regional Manager Mustafa Ülküdür, coordinated the teams fighting the fire on site. As night fell, air units were replaced by two night-vision helicopters and one forest worker was affected by smoke.
With daylight, planes and helicopters resumed their air interventions. Throughout the day, approximately 700 people, including forest personnel, nongovernmental organizations, Muğla Metropolitan Municipality and gendarmerie personnel, along with six planes, 15 helicopters, two boats from the Coast Guard Command, more than 100 fire trucks, and 30 heavy machines, continued to fight the fire.
As night fell, the fire persisted in weakened form in areas with no road access, between Sarnıç village and Zeytinköy, in Kartal Canyon. Throughout the night, ground teams pulled hoses to areas they could access and intervened. Two night-vision helicopters continued air intervention to areas inaccessible by ground.
With the first light of day, planes resumed their air operations. The fire was brought under control on Monday at around 8 a.m. While 200 hectares of land were damaged, nearly 1,000 beehives were affected by the smoke, and more than 800 hives full of bees were burned. Cooling efforts in the region are ongoing.
