ANKARA - Firefighters Tuesday brought a major fire in southern Turkey under control after six days of battling the blaze that claimed two lives and destroyed vast woodlands, officials said.
The fire, which raged near Turkey's main tourist hubs on the Mediterranean coast, "is completely brought under control as of today," Osman Kahveci, head of the forestry department, said at a televised press conference in Antalya.
It destroyed about 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres) of woodlands in the province, which would be reforested within a year, he said.
Antalya, Turkey's primary tourist destination, is dotted with luxury resorts and prominent historical sites that attract about seven million foreign holidaymakers every year.
The fire broke out between the towns of Serik and Manavgat on Thursday. By the following day it had spread out of control, fanned by winds of up to 70 kilometres per hour (43 miles per hour) and temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
Officials believe it was probably started by power lines torn down by the wind.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was to visit the province Tuesday.
The blaze left several dozen people homeless and killed two men in the village of Karatas, where about 60 houses were burnt down.
Several other villages were evacuated, but there was no damage to tourist resorts on the coastline.
On Saturday, the blaze reached woods near Olympos, a picturesque beach popular with young people. Helicopters were still pouring water on flames in highland areas inaccessible by land Tuesday, officials said.
Kahveci said the danger of fires would persist throughout the summer and warned local villagers to be vigilant and not to burn stubble as they usually do after cropping their fields.
"A tiny spark can easily grow into a fire given the high temperatures, the low level of humidity and the wind," he said.
Forest fires are common in Turkey as well as other Mediterranean countries during the hot and arid summer months, sparked mostly by negligent residents.
In 2006, a radical Kurdish separatist group claimed responsibility for a series of fires in southern and western Turkey.
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