Fire in İstanbul’s Esenyurt: Four children lose their lives

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A fire that broke out in the basement floor of a three-storey building claimed the lives of four children in İstanbul's Esenyurt district.

The mother and her one child, who were rescued from the flames at the last minute, have been hospitalized.

The fire broke out at around 2 am today (December 14). Seeing the flames, the ones in the neighborhood called the fire brigade teams.

Arriving at the scene of the incident, firefighters put out the fire and found the deceased bodies of four children.

As reported by NTV news channel, Fatma Hammud from Syria, who has been rescued from the fire, is the mother of the four deceased children aged 1, 3, 7 and 9. The children's father is reportedly in prison.

According to this news report, the fire broke out due to the electric heater. The channel has reported that the family was using the electric heater because they were unable to pay the natural gas bill.

As reported by T24 news website, the investigation launched into the fire is still ongoing. The mother and her one child rescued from the fire have been in treatment at the Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Training and Research Hospital in İstanbul's Küçükçekmece district.

Mustafa Demir, the upstairs neighbor of the family, has reportedly told T24, "There was so much smoke, we could hardly go out. We could not fight because of the smoke. Five children and a mother were living in the flat. The eldest child was 10 years old." (TP/SD)