Tragedy revealed after three children died due to fire in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Three children died due to a fire in their house in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district on March 18, Doğan News Agency has reported. 

The fire erupted on the top floor of a four-floor building. Police officers said the children were locked in their apartment as their mother was not in Istanbul and their father, who is a construction worker, was at work.

Fire crews interfered to extinguish the fire, which occurred at 11:00 a.m., while scores of ambulances and police officers were dispatched to the scene following the fire.

The bodies of the three siblings, İsa Şahin, 5, Abdurrahman Şahin, 3, and Vedat Şahin, 2, were found in the same room.

The father, Ramazan Şahin, and family relatives were seen devastated after they were informed the children’s bodies were taken to a forensics institute. 

Officials said that Şahin reportedly had 16 children, of whom the three who died were his youngest children.    

Meanwhile, Beyoğlu Mayor Ahmet Misbah Demircan arrived to the scene upon being informed and expressed his condolences. 

“We lost our three children here. Their father had gone to work and their mother was in Mardin. The father left his children alone in a room with a heater on fired by solid fuel and locked the door of the apartment. The heater, probably, flew sparks and spread throughout the room. The children died when the flames had surrounded the room. I am sorry for our loss,” he said.