Unthinkable incident at a care home: He poured cologne on his legs and set them on fire

62-year-old İskender Horuz, who has been living in a private care home in Kütahya for 11 years, poured cologne on his legs while in his wheelchair and set them on fire during an incident that occurred on the night of January 29.

It is stated that care home staff intervened approximately 5 minutes after the incident began. The moments when Horuz was engulfed in flames were captured on security cameras.

His guardian and niece, Satı Horuz, announced that they have filed a criminal complaint with the Kütahya Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against both the care home and the staff member believed to have been negligent in the incident. Satı Horuz stated, “My uncle İskender had been staying at the private care home in Kütahya for about 11 years. On the night of January 29, M.Ç., one of the care home staff, gave him a bottle of cologne. He told him, 'Pour this on yourself, set yourself on fire, and get it over with.' Since he cannot think normally, he poured the cologne and lit a lighter, and he caught fire. They sent the camera footage. You can hear the voices of 5-6 people in the background. The staff only appear after he is thoroughly engulfed in flames. 4-5 people approach calmly, they aren't even in a panic. They try to extinguish it calmly. And they didn't take him to the hospital that night. He stayed there, and the manager in charge came the next morning and they took him then. They called me only after they took him to the hospital in the morning. I learned these details after talking to my uncle. This is how he described what he went through to me.”

Horuz claimed that her uncle told the police he set himself on fire because he was afraid of the care home employee, and provided the following details regarding his treatment process: “He was burned from below his knees up to his genitals, meaning up to his abdomen. My uncle has undergone his first surgery regarding his general health condition. He will then have a second surgery. After that, he will have a third surgery. These are third-degree burns. Because his nerves and such are burned, he doesn't even feel pain right now; he is being kept in intensive care. He is confined to a wheelchair. He doesn't have the chance to get out of his wheelchair to go to the bathroom or do anything like that. He has been disabled since a childhood illness. After my uncle was burned, he wasn't taken to the hospital immediately; he was taken in the morning. When I asked, they explained it by saying, 'He didn't want to go to the hospital.' I am filing a complaint against both the employee and the care home.”

The camera recordings show that there was a delayed response to help İskender Horuz after he set himself on fire. The fact that he was not taken to the hospital immediately also drew attention. One day after the incident, Horuz was transferred to the Eskişehir City Hospital and placed under intensive care at the Burn Treatment Center.

Care home manager Muhammet Kahraman stated that the care of disabled individuals was being carried out at the time of the incident and provided the following explanation regarding the moment of the event: “This disabled resident is someone who stays up late and watches television. The area where this incident occurred is the television viewing area. The time the incident occurred was when our care staff were providing care services to the resident. While he was trying to burn the label on his trousers, the label caught fire because it was polyester, and then the knee brace caught fire. Unfortunately, this sad incident occurred. When you watch these images, you can see that the fire alarm system's audible warning was activated and the staff intervened and extinguished the fire within 1 minute. We have 6 months of camera recordings. A judicial and administrative investigation has been initiated regarding the incident.”