Reuters footage showed smoke rising from the hills as the fire spread through the forests of the sparsely populated area, with helicopters and planes dropping water on the flames throughout the day.
Police assisted firefighters with water cannon vehicles as they tried to put out the fire that started around 8pm local time on Tuesday and affected more than 8,400 acres (3,400) hectares of land.
More than 1,100 vehicles as well as 61 helicopters and 13 planes were in service on Friday to deploy in the firefighting effort.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said one person had been arrested and admitted to setting fire to the forest out of frustration over family problems. The state news agency Anadolu reports that he was found in the woods with two cans of gasoline.
The fire has been fueled by strong winds in the area, and Forest and Agriculture Minister Vahit Kirisci told reporters on Friday that there would be more “higher temperature and wind from this afternoon”.
“We are fighting the weather before the expected wind,” a spokesman for Mugla province’s forestry management told reporters on Friday.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday afternoon that 29 people had been affected by the fires, and two people were still receiving treatment at the hospital. Some 274 people were evacuated as a precaution, according to officials.
Turkey was the country hardest hit by last year’s Mediterranean fires, which burned more than 206,000 hectares of its land, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.
The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was criticized for not being prepared to fight the 2021 fires, especially for the lack of planes and helicopters.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said on Wednesday that the government was “incompetent” and had not increased preparedness after last year’s fires.