Izmir's heroic firefighters were vigilant against possible fires as the air temperatures rose above seasonal normals. President visiting firefighters Tunç Soyer“There have been 20 fires in the last 1556 days. Our friends extinguished 1473 of them with a quick response. May the people of Izmir rest in peace. İzmir is the most resistant city in Turkey against fire,” he said.
Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç SoyerVisiting the Service Building of the Fire Brigade Department in Yenişehir, he gave moral support to the firefighters who were on alert against possible fires. Expressing that the number of fires in the city increased with the increase in air temperatures, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Tunç Soyer“Between July 1-20, 556 fires occurred due to intense air temperature and wind. Our friends quickly intervened and extinguished 1473 of them. Only 57 of them were partially burned, and 26 of them were extinguished after all efforts despite all efforts," he said.
Thank you over the radio
President Soyer called out to the firefighters on duty by radio and said, “My dear brothers, I wish you a safe and fire-free day. I congratulate you on your heroic struggle so far and thank you all very much.”
May the people of Izmir rest in peace
Stating that they are going through difficult days due to the fire season, President Soyer said, “In these days when temperatures increase, global warming and climate crisis accelerate these processes, but the people of İzmir should rest in peace. Firefighters, especially our Fire Department Head İsmail Derse, continue to work hard with extraordinary dedication and effort. İzmir is the most resistant city in Turkey against fire,” he said.
Here is the secret of Izmir Fire Department's success
Underlining that there are very important factors behind the success of the Izmir Fire Department, Mayor Soyer said: “The amount of tools and equipment in the hands of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Fire Department is around 2 billion liras, or 100 million Euros, in today's money. This makes İzmir Fire Department the leader in terms of the number of equipment per capita in Turkey. İzmir is the province with the highest number of equipment among fire brigades in Turkey. This is the first. Secondly, there is a brand new structure that we have created with the Intelligent Notification System. This system can detect even the weakest smoke thanks to the cameras that monitor 46 percent of forest areas with real-time image processing technology 'artificial intelligence'. The image, location and type of the detected fire are sent to the teams by the system through the software program. Thus, the fires are directed to the detachments at the initial stage and the fire can be prevented quickly. We will expand this system to a wider area in the coming days with the support of the Information Technologies Department. The third factor is the organization we created especially in forest villages. We have 355 water cannons with the ones that were deployed last year. We provided on-site trainings in villages with a high risk of fire to inform the village people about how to respond to fires. As soon as the fire breaks out, the fire crews can intervene very seriously until they arrive at the scene. This is an unprecedented practice in Turkey.”
We start fires by human hands
Stating that 20 percent of the fires that broke out in 60 days in Izmir were caused by cigarette butts, Mayor Soyer said, “Twenty percent of our citizens did for cleaning purposes, burned garden garbage and missed the fire by not being able to control it, or not putting out the fire completely after the process. Fires have also occurred as a result of the electric wires hitting each other due to the hot and windy weather recently. In summary, we start these fires mostly by human hands, and these fires are mostly caused by cigarette butts. These are very difficult days. We call these days fire season. Our friends are fighting hard. This problem will continue in the coming days, and even in the last 24 hours, our friends have intervened in 95 fires.
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