Forest fire in Heybeliada Island in İstanbul: 1 person arrested

* News and photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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A fire broke out in two different spots in a forestland in Aşıklar Yolu area in Heybeliada, one of the Princes' Islands, in İstanbul yesterday (July 12).

The fire brigade teams of Regional Directorate of Forestry and İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality and the personnel of Military Academy joined the extinguishing efforts. While two helicopters were also used, citizens joined the efforts by carrying water with cans, buckets and plastic bottles.

The fire was taken under control in evening hours yesterday; however, the cooling efforts were still underway in late morning hours.

Arriving in the scene of incident, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli stated that a land of around 5 hectares was harmed by the fire. While the Governor's Office stated that an investigation had been launched into the fire, Adalar Security Directorate said that three suspects were detained as part of the investigation.

One person arrested

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) later in the day today, while two of the detained have been released, one suspect named Sedat D. has been arrested on charge of "burning a forest."

Speaking to police officers as part of the investigation, the people working on the beach said that right after the fire broke out, they saw a person running with a barrel in his hand and shared information about the police about how the suspect looked like. Accordingly, Sedat D. was taken into custody before the fire was completely extinguished.

Following their interrogation at the Heybeliada District Police Station, two of the detained were relased while Sedat D. was referred to couthouse.

Deposing at the Adalar Penal Judgeship of Peace, Sedat D. did not accept the accusations. The judgeship has ruled that suspect Sedat D. shall be arrested on charge of "burning a forest."

Pakdemirli: Cooling efforts continue

Addressing the reporters about the fire in Heybeliada, Minister Bekir Pakdemirli indicated that the humidity rate in the island was around 70 percent and the weather was really hot, noting that residential areas were also at risk, considering the direction of the fire. He briefly said:

"As you know, we are using our drones in intervening in fires this year. The fire was intervened by our one drone, two planes, six helicopters and six forest sprinklers, together with 17 fire engines and 23 sprinklers.

"As of these hours, the fire is now completely under control, it has been entirely extinguished. But the extinguishing efforts will naturally continue until tomorrow morning, even till noon.

"We have still 17 sprinklers headed for here, but it seems that there is no need for them anymore.

'We have three people in detention'

"All institutions of the state have made the necessary interventions. We have got over this fire, with our Heybeliada, with the minimum damage, with a damage of around five hectares.

"As we say in every fire, it is always caused by human error, 90 percent of it is caused by human error. But we now want to put an end to these human errors. We have three people in custody in relation with this fire. A multifaceted investigation is being carried out by the Governor's Office."

'Investigation is ongoing'

When asked whether it was arson or sabotage, Minister noted that "the investigation was ongoing." Reiterating that the investigation was conducted by the Governor's Office, Pakdemirli said, "I think that our Governor's Office will made the necessary statements in the earliest time possible." (TP/SD)