Melksham family help battle Turkey wildfire

Melksham residents on holiday in Turkey have described helping locals battle a fast-spreading wildfire as ‘heartbreaking and heartwarming’.

The fire spread to within 300 metres of the villa where the Melksham family were staying in Fethiye, south-west Turkey, during a two-week holiday with their children and their son’s friend.

They described the area looking like the ‘gates of hell’ as flames swept through surrounding woodland and suffered burns while helping locals.

George Maslen said, “My partner Kaleigh and I left our eldest son in the villa with our youngest children, and Freddie, our son’s friend, came with us to see what was going on. The police told us to turn around but, as we did, we saw a young girl filling up bottles of water with her dad and throwing them on the embers. At this point, we knew we had to do something to help. We joined them in filling up bottles of water.”

“The fire brigade then arrived and lots of locals were helping.”

George said firefighters were stretched because they were responding to multiple wildfires across the region.

“I jumped on the back of another truck with other locals to the next fire point up the road and Kaleigh and Freddie helped the crew unravel hoses into the woodland.”

He said embers were landing on them as the surrounding woodland burned.

“We were all just wearing flip-flips or no shoes and are covered in burns and cracked lips. I have a crack on my lip from where an ember hit me.”

After 45 minutes of helping locals and firefighters, George, Kaleigh and Freddie drove to a nearby shop to buy water.

“We bought all of the water in the shop, about 600 bottles, and took it back to hand out to people,” said George. “As we were driving back, both sides of the road were on fire.”

After four hours, they had handed out every bottle of water. George said that due to the severity of the situation, they were having to ‘pour water’ into the mouths of firefighters.

“It was one of the wildest experiences we have ever had,” said George.

He described a ‘heartbreaking’ moment of seeing a local man’s café business explode as the fire rapidly spread.

“It had been in his family for 50 years, handed down through generations and then suddenly just gone right in front of his eyes. It was difficult to watch.”

Following the fire, locals showed their gratitude to the family by leaving gifts, including fresh fruit and vegetables, at their villa.

“Everyone is shaking our hands and giving us free drinks wherever we go,” said George.

“You don’t get this at home. Usually when there is a situation like this, it’s all cordoned off and you are told to get back but here everyone was just getting stuck into helping. It was really heartwarming.”

George said Freddie, 16, who was on holiday with the family for the first time, showed ‘zero fear’ and ‘cracked on’ with helping in the blaze.

“He did not hesitate at all,” said George.

“I have never seen anything spread like that and if you were out walking in the woodland that day, you would have had no chance. It is a situation that has brought us all much closer together and we are just so grateful for what we have.”