Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay explains the cause of the fires: 'Aerial firefighting was insufficient'

In Turkey, Izmir has been surrendered to flames as wildfires continue unabated, fueled by the effects of global climate change.

Many citizens lost their homes in the fires that reached the city center.

Sözcü columnist Saygı Öztürk asked Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Dr. Cemil Tugay about the fire and the events that transpired.

Öztürk's interview with Cemil Tugay is as follows:

Get well soon, how did the fire start?

- There were too many fires one after another. The fire that people were most aware of, and which was larger in scale, broke out in the Yamanlar Mountain and forest area on the ridges of Karşıyaka and Bayraklı. It started on the night connecting Thursday to Friday. It was in a location far from the center. It spread very quickly on Friday morning due to the wind. Dramatic scenes emerged as the flames reached residential areas. It spread over a very wide area and could not be extinguished for a long time.

‘WE SURVIVED A GREAT DISASTER’

CT: There are 5 districts neighboring the region where the fire broke out. Karşıyaka, Bayraklı, then Çiğli, and on the other side, Bornova and Menemen. Since we saw with our own eyes how easily it could jump to residential areas, we can say that we survived a great disaster. The reason there wasn't a much worse outcome was the work of both the Izmir Fire Department and the fire departments that came from other provinces. 41 vehicles and 130 personnel arrived from 10 provinces.

There are state authorities regarding the fire. Can a dialogue environment be fully established, is there such communication? How are the relations?

CT: The problematic part is this; especially aerial firefighting teams are managed from Ankara. While they are managing, they cannot fully assess the scale of the problem at the local level. I observed this in this fire. Because in some regions, despite us saying, 'If you do not intervene here, it could become dangerous,' there was no intervention in fires that could have been easily extinguished with aerial intervention. I think they couldn't understand the situation. Unfortunately, we were proven right, and fires that could have been easily extinguished jumped to residential areas. Aerial firefighting was insufficient. There was effective aerial intervention on Saturday night and Sunday morning, and that was when it was extinguished.

‘IZMIR DID NOT RECEIVE ENOUGH ATTENTION’

-Were you unable to explain your concerns? Why did this happen?

CT: There is no event in the system that listens to local authorities. A crisis desk was established here. We conveyed our messages from there, but the officials of the governor's office, the crisis desk, and local authorities cannot influence the central administration. They do it as they see fit. The Minister said something like this; 'There are many fires at the same time, we are trying to intervene in all of them.' He said that the power was spread thin. Could this be a justifiable reason? Maybe it could, but when we look at the results and the affected area, I am of the opinion that the fire in Izmir did not receive enough attention. The Minister said something to me like, 'There is a fire in Aydın, you should see it, it's in a very bad state.' Of course, it is very sad and they also need intervention. I don't know what is being done, but I am sure that the fire in Izmir needed more intervention in proportional terms. 4,400 hectares of land burned. A very serious area burned. They calculated it as 14,000 football fields. These are the satellite images from NASA and information we received from the Association of Foresters. The Minister had said 1,600, but the fire hadn't been extinguished yet at that time. They centralized everything, and the current government has also centralized the intervention in fires. This prevents the local administration's effort to act quickly. Our municipalities also need to have more authority in this regard.

-Forest regional directors are also changing, it was a bit untimely.

CT: There are a lot of things being talked about. One is; 'It was said that the aircraft had intervened in the fire in Greece and needed to rest for a while after returning. They waited during that time.' I don't know if it's true, but there is a lot of misinformation. What is certain before our eyes is that the fire was in places inaccessible by air and land. Aerial firefighting remained very insufficient. That's why the fire couldn't be extinguished.

Mayor Cemil Tugay expressed that they would take responsibility as a municipality regarding forest fires as follows:

-What lesson is learned from this incident?

CT: The biggest lesson I learned is that we need to take much stricter measures in places such as residential units, industrial zones, and municipal facilities that are adjacent to the forest. First of all, whether they give us this duty or not, we will strengthen our own fire department and equipment as if we are going to take more responsibility. We will increase our firefighting capacity. However, we also need to do work regarding the correct identification of risky areas and precautions. We actually need to do this all over the country. There may be a need for legislation or regulation.

ELECTRICITY LINES ARE NOT BEING DISCUSSED

In 2021, during that great fire in Bodrum, Milas, Köyceğiz, and Marmaris, we had also gone to extinguish it. I had asked a person responsible for local public order in Bodrum, 'how did this fire start?' He said, 'It started from a transformer in a village near Milas, between Bodrum and Milas.' After that, there was hot, dry weather and wind, just like we are experiencing these days. The thermometer was showing 50 degrees. The cause of the first spark of the fire in this environment was the transformer. I had talked to the villagers in Köyceğiz. They had said it started from the wires of the power line. The cause of the fires in Menderes and Çeşme Ildırı was power lines. We are 100 percent sure. The Governor already told us about one, in the one in Menderes, the Governor told us that the power line snapped and the first fire started with its sparks. The public there had also seen the one in Ildırı very clearly. From the power lines. They turned off the electricity, when they turned it back on, other explosions occurred, other fires occurred. We never talk about this... I look from that date to this, there are still very few people talking about this issue. It seems that power lines, wires, and transformers are responsible for a significant portion of the fires. We experience such a situation especially in very hot weather. Work needs to be done on this issue. We are talking about extinguishing the fire, but we also need to talk about why it starts. On one side, there is hot, dry weather, wind, etc., that is true, but we need to look at the initial cause. We always say people start them, but it seems they also start significantly from power lines. This must be investigated and precautions must be taken. It shouldn't be something very difficult. If the power lines passing through the forest area are checked regularly and the factors that could cause fires are eliminated, it will decrease significantly.

-Whose duty is this?

CT: Most likely the electricity distribution companies, of course. As you know, regarding electricity distribution companies, because they have been privatized, there have been many, many problems regarding maintenance and repair afterwards. Since this job, which is normally a public service, is currently managed with a private sector mentality, there is a widespread opinion that many things are neglected. I am of the same opinion. If indifference and faulty management are also causing forest fires, this privatization thing must end. Electricity distribution needs to continue as a public service. We are not leaving anyone out in the cold.

Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Tugay expressed that they rushed to the aid of people affected by the fire and said the following:

“While the fires were continuing, we had observations and findings. In terms of emergency aid, we did quite a lot regarding housing those who were evacuated and meeting their food and basic needs. So, no one was left out in the cold, no one went hungry. Of course, the morale of our people whose homes were heavily damaged and whose belongings were burned is very low. We are comforting them with visits and meetings. On the other hand, we made a decision; we will provide financial aid. To be an urgent breath of air. We will provide both direct cash aid and a shopping card aid. These will not be very low figures.

WE WILL TREAT THE TREES

On the other hand, we have villagers whose pastures were burned. We provided them with feed aid. There are those who were left in the middle of the area where their hives were burned. We are helping to move those hives. We are helping people whose tractors were burned and whose animals perished. We are working to save the trees in the burned areas. We will conduct a study with our forest engineers, agricultural engineers, and botanist friends to save the trees that can survive. We decided to cooperate with the faculty of forestry for this. If we succeed, we can save a lot of trees. We will also reduce the burden of planting new trees.”