Life-saving firefighter in Istanbul succumbs to injuries

ISTANBUL

A firefighter who saved four people from a hotel fire in Istanbul’s Fatih district on April 27 has died at hospital after sustaining injuries during the blaze. 

Taner Çebi, 42, was part of the team that intervened in a fire that engulfed the sauna of a hotel in Fatih.

He saved four people who suffered from heavy smoke inside the sauna but was wounded during the operation, and passed away after fighting for his life for two days at hospital.

A special ceremony will be held for Çebi at the Istanbul Fire Department on April 30 and he will later be laid to rest at the Edirnekapı Firefighters Martyrs’ Cemetery.

He served as firefighter for 15 years, taking part in several major rescue operations in Turkey and abroad. Those operations included the earthquake in the eastern province of Van in 2011, the mining disaster at Soma in 2014, the flood in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2014, and the earthquake in Nepal in 2015.

Çebi is survived by his two children, aged five and a one-and-a-half, and his spouse.