Rain douses Cyprus wildfire that burned thousands of acres

KANTÁRA: In the end, it was Mother Nature that extinguished a wildfire that has burned thousands of acres and forced the evacuation of villages in divided northern Cyprus, officials said Saturday.

Aircraft from both sides of Cyprus, as well as British and Israeli military personnel, responded to calls for help fighting the fire that started Tuesday in the Kantara area of ​​the Kyrenia mountain range.

“The fire… has largely been extinguished by the rain that fell last night,” said Unal Ustel, prime minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is only recognized by Ankara.

“We have survived a great disaster.”

There have been no reports of casualties, but Turkish Cypriot authorities said more than 6,500 acres (2,600 hectares) had been burned.

Helicopters continued to drop water on the burning ridges on Friday, before heavy rain fell overnight.

Forestry department chief Cemil Karzaoglu said the fire was fully under control and clean-up operations were continuing where smoke was still visible.

Ustel expressed his gratitude to “the British base areas, Israel and the Greek Cypriot administration for their support in extinguishing the fire from the air.”

The United Nations peacekeeping force said it coordinated the firefighting response.

According to earlier Cypriot media reports, at least four villages were evacuated.

Israel’s emergency services and Britain’s sovereign base areas on the eastern Mediterranean island often help fight Cyprus’s frequent bushfires.

In July last year, fires that broke out in the Larnaca and Limassol districts claimed the lives of four Egyptian farm workers and destroyed more than 12,000 acres.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish forces occupied the northern part of the island in response to a military coup sponsored by the junta in power in Greece at the time.