The fire departments of the cities in the earthquake area were also seriously injured. The Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Fire Department teams, which have been operating in the region since the first day, support many works in the field in Hatay. Firefighters from Izmir also intervene in fires and try to prevent possible dangers.
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, which has established disaster coordination centers in Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman and Osmaniye, continues its efforts to support earthquake victims. Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Fire Brigade Department teams, which started working in Hatay right after the earthquake, also evaluate the notifications and take action as soon as possible. The teams, which are vigilant against fires, work in partnership with other units of the Metropolitan Municipality against possible dangers in the tent city.
“We created shelters”
Mahir Yıldız, one of the chiefs of the Fire Brigade Department, said, “Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Fire Brigade was one of the first teams in the region. After the search and rescue efforts, AFAD started the debris removal process. At the same time, we retreated to our own field and started to stand by the citizens for their shelter needs, and participated in the works of setting up tents. In the tent city, we started escort service against possible danger with our sprayer and AKS vehicles. At the same time, some of our citizens who cannot live in tent cities or who are engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry have applied to us and stated that they want to live next to their properties. We have created shelters in tents and properties where they are located. We have made an effort to cure the problems of the citizens. In addition, we also intervened in the fires in the region. We extinguished the fire in the region's largest citrus cold storage in a short time.
“Hatay Fire Brigade took great damage”
Touching on the container city studies, Yıldız said, “We were deployed for escort purposes. We will transfer the tent living spaces to the container city. In these living areas, we will be accompanying the citizens in cases that require a possible fire or rescue. Hatay Fire Department was heavily damaged in the earthquake. We came from other provinces to fulfill our duties in order to close this gap. When we wake up in the morning, we do our routine checks and preparations. We go to the addresses given in the case, rescue or tent-style needs notified to us by the coordination center and carry out the studies. We are working with 50 personnel,” he said.