Nearly half of fires in Istanbul started by cigarette butts

ISTANBUL

The biggest cause of nearly 8,000 fires that occurred in the first five months of 2020 in Istanbul were cigarette butts, according to data from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

The number of fires in 2020 decreased by 2 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, the report said.

The latest figures revealed that 34 percent of the 7,788 fires that have occurred to date were caused by improperly disposed smoking materials in Istanbul, a metropolis with a total population of almost 16 million.

Nearly 30 percent of fires in the province were caused by electircity leakage while 7 percent of fires were deliberately started.

In 2020, 67.9 percent of fires in Istanbul occurred on the European side and 22.1 percent on the Anatolian side.

The average response time of the firefighters was 2 minutes 49 seconds in the Princes’ Islands (Adalar), off Istanbul’s coast, while it was 3 minutes 45 seconds in the Fatih disctrict, a heavily populated area in the heart of old Istanbul.

Together with the volunteers, 4,605 firefighters serve in 123 stations in Istanbul.