Occupational safety expert on the nightclub fire in Beşiktaş: 'If there had been a smart building system'

A fire broke out yesterday afternoon on the -1 and -2 floors of a 16-story building in Gayrettepe, Beşiktaş. While 29 people lost their lives in the fire, one person was injured. Occupational safety expert Şebnem Akman Balta provided an assessment. 

Balta noted that the burned workplace had applied for a license twice and added the following:

"The employer should have first obtained approval regarding the renovation if one was to be carried out. After obtaining approval, having an occupational safety expert present to oversee the workers would have been the correct path, and it is very important whether any high-level risk assessment was conducted. Whether drills were conducted regularly is very important. Were there sprinklers? Someone should have intervened the moment the fire broke out in the area. If there had been a smart building system, perhaps so many workers would not have lost their lives.

Furthermore, was the fire load calculation of the building performed in the first place? When obtaining a license, it was very important whether an assessment was made by the urban planning directorate and the municipality regarding zoning, by the fire department regarding fire and explosion risks, by the municipal police regarding noise, and by the police department regarding public order. These were very important issues for licensing. Two applications were made for a license. We do not know if the employer changed or if these events occurred after a change in employer. Whether approval for the renovation was obtained or not will become clearer after the investigation."