Forest fires, negligence, accountability, and excessive 'normalization'

For 15 days, our hearts have been burning. The topic we are discussing is how these fires started. How and why the fires started is, of course, important. If there are those responsible, they must be caught and held accountable in court. 

Article 169 of the Constitution and Article 69 of the Forestry Law impose a responsibility on the administration to prevent and extinguish forest fires, and to take measures in this regard. Therefore, the administration bears liability for fault regarding the spread, failure to extinguish, and failure to prevent these fires. Consequently, not only can criminal proceedings be brought, but the administration also incurs liability for material damages. The opposition, however, is silent on this matter. 

In this regard, it is not enough for the opposition to generally mention liability for fault. It must also explain what the government, and thus the administration, could have done but failed to do. 

As things stand, the debate is focused on why the fires started and whether they were natural or human-caused. This discussion is filling the agenda. Even if no one had started the fires, it was foreseeable that they would occur. After all, fires have broken out in many parts of Europe in the last month. It is almost impossible to prevent such fires from starting. But early intervention in fires is possible. This requires equipment, trained personnel, and determination. 

We have a department established exactly for this purpose: The Department of Combating Forest Fires. (see https://www.ogm.gov.tr/tr/kurulusumuz/merkez-birimleri/orman-yanginlariyla-mucadele-dairesi-baskanligi) 

The department's job descriptions include: Taking all kinds of physical and human measures to prevent the outbreak and spread of forest fires,

• Strengthening techniques for combating forest fires, ensuring the establishment of fire watchtowers and keeping them ready for service,

• Improving intervention techniques for forest fires, minimizing fire damage by shortening response times,

• Training personnel involved in responding to forest fires, conducting work and procedures related to the fire expert training center,

• Performing similar duties assigned by the General Directorate.

Is there anyone among us who thinks the necessary preparations for fires were made? Do we think the personnel and equipment were prepared during the fires? As any person of common sense would say, our state failed in this regard. So, what should the opposition say in such a situation? Should we 'normalize'?

Normally, that is, what should happen is for the opposition to hold them strictly accountable, call for the resignation of those responsible, and demand that legal processes be initiated against those who did not take the necessary precautions. Was this done? Unfortunately, no. 

Let us ask the questions the opposition did not ask: 

1) Have the techniques for combating forest fires been strengthened? What work has been done in this direction in the last year? How much have the expenditures in this area increased when adjusted for real inflation?

2) How many new watchtowers have been built in the last year? If they were built, are their locations correct? In how many of the areas where the recent fires occurred are there new watchtowers? 

3) How many new personnel have been trained in the last year? How many of the trained personnel are permanent staff, how many are contracted, and how many are seasonal workers? How many of the trained personnel were active during the fight against forest fires? How does the quality of the training compare to that provided in advanced countries? Are the programs for these trainings public? If so, where are they announced? Is it possible to receive this training voluntarily? How many of our citizens are there who, despite not being staff, could receive voluntary training and be called upon to fight forest fires? 

4) How many of the projects carried out and publicly supported by research and development institutions in our country, especially TÜBİTAK, regarding the prevention of forest fires, early warning systems for fires, and firefighting, have been implemented? How much was paid for these in total? What are the current efforts to disseminate them? 

I could not reach the answers to these questions. Perhaps our Members of Parliament can bring us the answers through parliamentary questions, and our journalists through their research.

Before closing the subject, I would like to mention a project I came across. In a report by the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs compiling TÜBİTAK 1007 projects, I found a project completed between 2007-2009 under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Enis Çetin from Bilkent University. If we had learned the necessary lessons from the outputs of this and similar projects and put them into practice, we would not be in this situation now. 15 years have passed. I hope the necessary lessons are finally learned. I congratulate those who contributed. 

I am sharing the project outputs as they are: 

In 2007, the project, which started by installing 3 cameras on 3 towers in the Manavgat region of Antalya, reached 154 cameras in 77 fire watchtowers as of 05.10.2012, and approximately 3.2 million hectares of fire-sensitive forest area are monitored with this system. By selecting the points to be scanned and the scanning duration via the program for the PTZ cameras placed on the towers, critical forest areas are monitored via computer. Thanks to the developed software, it can analyze live forest images within a 15-20 km radius from the tower's location and detect smoke at a distant point within 15-25 seconds. The software, which consists of various algorithms, also serves to process raw color forest images obtained from cameras on a computer. The developed software is basically based on elements such as slow-moving objects, color analysis, and smoke rising. A mechanism has been created that records the vegetation in the images into its memory as it scans, in other words, recognizes the background. Thus, any change in the images can be noticed immediately. Images and alarms obtained from the cameras are transferred via digital link lines to the Operations Directorate located in the center of the city where the fire region is located. 

These high-resolution images can be watched live at Regional Forestry Directorates, Forest Operations Directorates, and the Fire Operations Centers of the General Directorate of Forestry. Thanks to these images, which can be watched simultaneously on monitoring screens, the fire can be detected early, necessary precautions can be taken quickly and effectively, and necessary interventions can be made in a timely manner. In the event of a fire, the interventions and efforts made can be presented to the public via the internet through this system, and simultaneous information of the public on the subject can be provided in the form of a live broadcast. It has been determined that between 2007 and 2012, 241 forest fires were detected at their very beginning thanks to this system, and by notifying the relevant units early, it made a significant contribution to extinguishing the fire before it grew, preventing economic and ecological losses, and with the early detection and early intervention of these fires, savings of approximately 11 times (38,849,125 TL) the 3,254,353 TL spent for the system were achieved. The software of the Forest Fires Early Warning System (OYEUS), realized in cooperation with the General Directorate of Forestry, TÜBİTAK, and Bilkent University, was sold to the United States Department of Energy for the purpose of monitoring the surroundings of the nuclear reactor in Idaho. A company in the United States has been authorized for the promotion and sale of the developed software all over the world. www.wildlandsystems.com In the project titled “Fire Detection and Management through a Multi-Sensor Network for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Areas from the Risk of Fire and Extreme Weather Conditions,” which is one of the Special Targeted Research Projects of the European Union 7th Framework Program and in which Greece, Tunisia, Italy, and Turkey are involved, the software prepared by our General Directorate and Bilkent University is used in the section related to forest fires. http://www.firesense.eu/ The General Directorate of Forestry also benefits from the systems installed/to be installed in the ancient cities of Olympos, Phaselis, and Rhodiapolis within the scope of the project carried out to ensure the protection of archaeological and cultural heritage areas against the risk of forest fires and supported by the Ministry of Culture and Akdeniz University. http://signal.ee.bilkent.edu.tr

The majority of the staff working in fire watchtowers consist of people over middle age who are not computer literate and are primary or secondary school graduates. First of all, basic computer usage training such as turning the computer on and off, and using a mouse and keyboard was given to our personnel working in these areas. These trainings first started in the fire watchtower, and with the help of the computer-using children of the staff, a staff that is at peace with computers was created. After the first basic training, the tower staff were given the ability to use computers visually, benefit from internet services, and solve simple problems with the help of various remote intervention programs, and they were taught how to use the cameras manually when necessary during a fire. Social responsibility projects were carried out under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Gonca TELLİ, Director of the Distance Education Center at Okan University, to investigate the positive and negative effects of internet service on the spouses and children of the staff working in the tower and to ensure that these people are both utilized for their labor and made aware of environmental issues when there is no fire. http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/benormanadami/