A British couple and a 16-year-old family friend have described suffering burns after rushing towards a wildfire in Turkey to help firefighters fight the flames.
Cruiserweight boxer George Maslen, 34, his partner Kaleigh Marie, 36, and his son’s friend Freddie Davies, 16, spent more than four hours assisting crews as the blaze spread near their holiday villa close to Fethiye.
The group, from Wiltshire, said they filled water containers, doused burning embers, carried fire hoses into woodland and distributed around 600 bottles of water to exhausted emergency workers.
Despite wearing only flip-flops, the tourists joined the effort as scorching embers fell around them, leaving them with burns to their feet, hands and faces.
‘It was like being at the gates of hell,’ George said.
George and Kaleigh said they woke at around 4am or 5am to see thick plumes of smoke moving towards the holiday home, as people in nearby villas began evacuating.
By about 8am or 9am, smoke was visible on a nearby hillside, prompting the group to drive closer to find out whether they too would need to leave.
George said: ‘Police officers had the road shut and were turning people around.’
George Maslen, 34, his partner Kaleigh Marie, 36, and 16-year-old Freddie Davies ran into a blaze in Turkey to help firefighters tackle the flames
Pictured: George Maslen and his partner, Kaleigh Marie
‘Kaleigh said, ‘Babe, no one’s helping. We’ve got to do something.’
‘I said, ‘Okay, let’s do this.’
The trio jumped out of their cars and began filling bottles before passing them up the hillside.
Helicopters later arrived and began dropping water on the blaze.
George then climbed onto the back of a truck travelling farther along the road, while Kaleigh and Freddie helped extinguish burning embers.
When a fire engine arrived, George said he climbed on top and briefly used its water cannon as firefighters set up their equipment.
After hours working in the intense heat, Kaleigh became concerned about the emergency workers battling the flames without enough drinking water.
They drove to a local shop, bought around 600 bottles and packed them into their vehicles before returning to the fire line.
George said: ‘We were all in sliders and flip-flops. We weren’t dressed for it at all. We just started running into the woods.
‘The hot embers were bouncing up underneath us and burning our feet.
‘At that point, we were surrounded by the fire and heat.
‘We were pouring water over the firefighters and into their mouths because they were gasping for it.’
They spent approximately four-and-a-half hours running between the woodland, fire engines and water supplies.
George said he struggled to walk for several days afterwards and expects to be left with a scar after a large ember struck him in the face.
It comes as Europe has been battling scores of wildfires this summer
File image: Volunteers walk past burning trees and vegetation during a wildfire at Cine district in Aydin, Turkey, on July 31
He said: ‘I think I’m going to end up with a decent scar on my bottom lip, where I got nailed in the face by a huge ember that fused to it.
‘But I feel pretty lucky to have ended up with only these small injuries.’
Kaleigh continued working despite suffering from arthritis and was left in pain for several days.
George added: ‘She powered through and didn’t stop for a good three or four hours.
‘I couldn’t be more proud of her.’
Freddie escaped with several minor scratches and small burn scabs, which George said cleared after a day or two.
When they returned to the woodland the following day, they discovered that the previously thick vegetation had been reduced to a blackened wasteland.
George said: ‘The day before, it was filled with luscious green bushes and growth, and you couldn’t see more than 20ft into the woodland.
‘Now it’s just barren for miles.’
The wildfire broke out in the Yeşilüzümlü area of Fethiye and spread rapidly in strong winds.
Official updates said firefighters, forestry crews and other public bodies worked alongside residents as helicopters repeatedly collected water from a nearby reservoir.
The fire later reignited and threatened residential areas, prompting Fethiye officials to make an urgent public appeal for businesses and residents to supply fire extinguishers.
Turkish social media users praised the holidaymakers and hailed them as heroes for joining the battle.
It comes as wildfires have been tearing through Europe amid a record-breaking hot and dry summer.
Strong winds returned to southern Greece late on Monday, pushing flames into mountain home clusters, destroying farms and property, and closing a highway.
A firefighter works to extinguish a wildfire raging since four days in the Megara Region, west of Athens on August 3, 2026
Horses run from wildfire in the settlement of Kandili, Greece, in this screengrab taken from a video, August 3, 2026
Areas surrounding the Greek capital remain at high risk through the week with temperatures set to rise further.
More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from around the seaside resort of Porto Germeno and other areas west of the capital — including more than 250 rescued by boats from beaches in the area.
In France, firefighters in the Bordeaux region guarded against potential flare-ups within a still-burning scar four times the size of Paris.
A prolonged heat wave and lack of rainfall led to the driest July in England and Wales in nearly 200 years of recordkeeping, according to provisional statistics, the UK weather service said Monday.
All of Wales and more than half of England are officially in drought, the Met Office said. The dry spell was accompanied by sweltering temperatures across much of the UK, following heat waves in May and June.
Wales tied its record for the warmest July mean temperature, while England and the UK recorded their second-warmest July.
