Fire in Istanbul kills six, including five children

ISTANBUL

The incident shocked the whole neighborhood. Istanbul Governor also expressed his grief by sending condolences via Twitter. DHA photo

Five children and another adult were killed after a fire that broke out April 20 in a four-storey building in Istanbul’s Küçükçekmece district. The fire was estinguished by the fire fighters as police and ambulances were deployed to the scene. Security teams have started investigation over the incident while the bodies of the victims were sent to forensics for an autopsy.

The fire presumably broke out after an electric heater set aflame a pullout couch, Küçükçekmece Mayor, Aziz Yeniay, told reporters. The victims were unable to escape as the flames spread quickly surrounding the room's door and blocking the exit, he explained. 

Yeniay, who rushed to the scene following the incident, added that the children were not from a single family, as it was initially reported, but from three separate families. “We learned that a 20-year-old mother and her two kids were among the victims. They had come [to Istanbul] for a visit from Germany. Two other children from another family and a four or five-year-old child from a third family have also passed away,” he said. 

The victims were identified as Elif Erten (20), her five-year-old daughter Fatmagül and seven-month-old baby Nisanur, six-year-old twin sisters Aylin and Hilal Bahçi and four-year-old Ömer Bahçi. 

Two other children who were at the apartment during the incident were unhurt. Main opposition Republican People’s Party's (CHP) Istanbul deputy Süleyman Çelebi also came to the scene. 
 
Meanwhile, Istanbul Gov. Hüseyin Avni Mutlu sent his condolences over the incident via a Twitter message. “We are deeply pained for our six citizens, including five children, who lost their lives in Küçükçekmece. May the God rest their soul,” Mutlu wrote.