‘Fire spread in 15 minutes, the lake was our only way out'

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"The fire I had seen in the mountains reached our village in 15 minutes. The land road was closed and the lake was our only way out.

"We got in the boat and sailed away. On the night of the fire, after 12 am, we called the 112 medical emergency hotline and gendarmerie several times, but no help came. They must be all in the records. We could reach the land at 7 in the morning by our own means."

The firefighting efforts are still ongoing in the face of the fire that broke out in Manavgat in Turkey's Mediterranean province of Antalya two days ago and claimed the lives of three people and several animals.

A family of 15 who were stranded in the Manavgat Dam Lake in Oymapınar could escape from the fire thanks to their own efforts.

Recounting the first night of the fire, Hatice Enhoş, the owner of the Cennet Vadisi Restaurant near the dam, says, "We were left to the mercy of god. We left everything behind and tried to reach the land by boat."

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'I saw the flames rising'

Speaking about the night of the fire, Enhoş tells us that they had 2.5-year-old and 6-year-old children with them. She briefly says:

"We are running a restaurant on Lake Manavgat. We were sitting as a family on the night of the fire. We are in the mountainous part of Manavgat, on the dam lake. My children left the restaurant at 12. My spouse and I stayed at the restaurant. There was a heavy wind.

"My spouse slept. We sleep in the open in summer. We see the mountains from where we lie down. I saw the flames rising.

"I don't know if it was smoke or cloud. It was dark. Something was happening. I woke my spouse. It was no sooner I woke him up than the flames reached where we were in 15 minutes.

'We left the restaurant to god and left'

"I called the children. They were there in 20 minutes. 15 minutes later, we left the restaurant to god and left. We wanted to go by car. But the moment we tried to take them, the fire started coming towards us from inside the village. It started coming from the opposite direction.

"There were six big cylinders. We wanted to remove them. But my son said, 'Leave it.' We left the cylinders behind. If the lake had not been there, we would have had no way out. All roads were closed.

'I called the 112 emergency hotline several times'

"We got in the boat and sailed away. We called the 112 medical emergency hotline several times. The hours must be in the records. 'We will transfer the call to an official, we will help, we will come...' I constantly heard these sentences. Enough with your 'We will come'; come already!

"Not only was there no help, but no one from the 112 told us to close our mouths or to put our clothes on our faces, either. It was the first time we were experiencing a fire. They constantly stalled us.

"A relative of ours whom we reached by phone gave us instructions. She told us to remove sponges from life jackets, soak them with water and close our mouths with them. She urged us to not let the baby sleep..."

'Authorities are not with the people'

Hatice Enhoş says that while they could reach the land on the night of the fire thanks to their own efforts, no officials came to their help. 

"I complain about all authorities," she says, adding:

"We could not get in contact with the mayor or sub-governor. They said they sent aircraft and helicopters. No one came. The distance from Oymapınar Dam to Manavgat Dam is around 3-4 kilometers. If they had sent someone from the rescue team, he would have found us in 5 minutes.

"Yesterday, our mayor was pretending to be crying. They say, 'We are with the people of Manavgat.' They are not with the people. They have abandoned us to our fate.

"After we landed by our own means in the morning, they sent an ambulance at 10.30. After we landed... Our relatives would already take us by car.

"I complain about the mayor, the governor and the sub-governor. The Minister of Agriculture and Forestry is lying by saying, 'We have rescued them.' They must buy more ambulances and firefighting equipment. The boat did not run out of fuel, that was how we could land."

'If the boat had no fuel, they would have died'

Lawyer Dilşad Enhoş also says that her paternal aunt Hatice Enhoş called her at 2 in the morning and asked for help.

"On that night, my family of 10 were literally about to die," she says, adding, "If the boat had had no fuel, they would have died in the village due to the smoke. The boat stayed in the middle of the fire for hours. No one rescued my family; they were lucky and survived on their own."

Noting that she set off for Antalya from Marmaris in a haste, Enhoş says: "My grandmother, my grandfather, my aunt, my cousins... As everywhere was on fire and the roads were closed, they had to sail on the lake. There was also the north wind. They called the municipality, the 112 medical emergency hotline, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD), gendarmerie, police, everyone... But no one came to search for them. The sub-governor says, 'We rescued them.' But it was not how it happened.

'It must be declared a disaster area'

"The fires are still razing in some parts of the village. People are devastated. They are waiting in front of their burned houses.

"Volunteers are carrying some things in their own vehicles. The Red Crescent and AFAD are now distributing sandwiches and ayran. In the meantime, there are still ongoing fires behind our village.

"There is absolutely no organized work. People are waiting in front of their own burned house. For the cooling efforts...

"The dead animals are everywhere. People are homeless, they have no place to stay. This area must be declared a disaster area urgently and efforts must be made for accomodation. The damage must be assessed and people must be offered financial aid." (AÖ/SD)