Istanbul’s narrow streets cause concern for emergency situations

ISTANBUL

As Istanbul has more than 9,000 narrow streets that fire brigades or other rescue vehicles cannot even enter, this problem creates a serious concern in the city where a large-scale quake is expected.

Since the Feb. 6 earthquakes claimed lives of more than 50,000 people and caused severe destruction in the country’s south, the expected quake in Istanbul has come to the agenda.

Experts constantly note that the probability of an expected magnitude 7 earthquake in the megacity has increased to 80 percent and warn for the urgent renovation and strengthening of buildings.

While each district focuses on urban transformation and strengthening works in its own region, one of the biggest dangers in the city is narrow streets.

The city hosts more than 9,000 narrow streets that fire trucks cannot enter in case of a possible earthquake, fire or other disasters.

According to the “Istanbul Project for Updating Possible Earthquake Loss Estimates” of the municipality, it is predicted that about 3,000 fires will break out during a possible earthquake in Istanbul, as the number of streets that cannot be entered in emergency situations is 9,073.

Remzi Albayrak, the head of the municipality’s fire brigade department, stated that especially in some districts, including Fatih, Beyoğlu, Üsküdar, Sarıyer and Beykoz, the narrow streets pose a great threat in terms of emergency response.

“The number of vehicles has extremely increased in the city. Due to the lack of indoor and outdoor car parks, residents have to park their vehicles on the streets irregularly,” Albayrak explained.

In the city that hosts approximately 16 million people, it is expected that fires will be break out at 3,000 points, 200 of which are in houses, in a disaster scenario.

“We provided small rescue and fire fighting vehicles that can enter narrow spaces. We have search and rescue volunteers who previously received motorcycle training,” Albayrak added.

Underlining that the structures where people who are on search and rescue missions live and the buildings of institutions where emergency coordination is carried out should be quake resistant, Albayrak warned that the number of firefighters in Istanbul is quite insufficient and it should be increased urgently.