ISTANBUL: Firefighters early Friday gained control over a major wildfire in the western Turkish province of Izmir but two others continued to ravage forests there, a minister said.

Although Turkiye was spared the recent heatwaves that hit the rest of southern Europe, firefighters have been battling more than 600 fires in the drought-hit nation over the past week which have been fueled by high winds.

By Friday morning, they had gained control over a major fire near the resort town of Cesme, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Turkiye’s third city Izmir, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said.

The firefighters’ “intense work overnight and the air intervention that resumed at dawn have brought the fire in Cesme under control,” he wrote on X.

But they were still battling two other wildfires, one in Buca just south of Izmir and another in Odemis, about 100 kilometers further east where an 81-year-old man and a forestry worker died on Thursday.

Forecasters said temperatures were set to rise over the weekend and would reach around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degree Fahrenheit) in the province early next week.

With the fire under control in Cesme, the road linking the peninsular to Izmir was reopened, Anadolu state news agency said.

But the motorway connecting Izmir and Aydin to the southeast was closed because of the Buca fire, which began at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday and spread quickly due to the wind, CNN Turk said.

It said two people who had been cutting iron for use in construction had been arrested on suspicion of starting the fire.

On Monday, more than 50,000 people were evacuated, mostly in the Izmir area but also from the southern province of Hatay, the AFAD disaster management agency said.

According to figures on the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) website, there have been 96 wildfires in Turkiye so far this year that have ravaged more than 49,652 hectares (122,700 acres) of land.

The area of land burnt has more than doubled since Monday when it stood at nearly 19,000 hectares. EFFIS only maps fires that cover an area of 30 hectares or more.

Experts say human-driven climate change is causing more frequent and more intense wildfires and other natural disasters, and have warned Turkiye to take measures to tackle the problem.