
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Engineer Erhan Mataracı made striking statements regarding the fire disaster in Bolu Kartalkaya, where 76 citizens lost their lives. Materials and Metallurgical Engineer Mataracı said, “The necessity of complying with a standard regarding fire protection in Turkey is a question mark. There is no standardized set of rules that are binding on everyone. We entrust the lives of our people to the whims of individuals.”
In the Grand Kartal Hotel fire at Kartalkaya Ski Center in Bolu, which hosts tens of thousands of people every year, 76 people lost their lives and dozens were injured. Nine people were taken into custody following the incident, which was one of the deadliest hotel fires recorded in Turkish history, while experts suggested that the cause of the disaster was negligence. A statement on the subject came from Materials and Metallurgical Engineer Erhan Mataracı. “There are two approaches in international standards, the establishment of standards, namely regulations, that will ensure safety and even provide periodic controls in later stages with committees consisting of not only academics but also experts from within the sector,” Mataracı said, touching on the problems in the system and said the following:
“The message that this sentence, ‘Earthquakes don’t kill, buildings do’, which we use for earthquakes in our country, gives us is that earthquakes are a possible situation and that all kinds of scientific precautions have been taken against this disaster in the buildings we have built. We can understand this sentence much more clearly if there is a death in a building for any reason other than an earthquake. There may be an explosion due to pressure in the mechanical installation of the building, a fire may start due to electrical circuits and many other reasons that may cause people to die. There are two main reasons for the collapse of buildings constructed in Turkey, the explosion of manufactured machines or tubes and pressurized lines: First, the lack of sufficiently serious standards for all types of production activities in the country. Second, even if there are any standards or regulations, the lack of a system that will ensure their complete implementation.
There are two approaches to international standards; the creation of standards, namely regulations, that will provide security with committees consisting not only of academics but also of experts from the sector, and even provide periodic controls at later stages. In addition, these standards are regularly revised with feedback from the sector. There are two types of fire protection standards used in the world: The most common of these is NFPA (The National Fire Protection Association) and the other is the GOST-R and EAC applications implemented by Russia. The main difference between the two standards in terms of approaching fire hazard is: NFPA focuses on protecting each structure individually, while the Russians focus more on protecting the entire facility from fire.
“THE REAL PROBLEM IS THE LACK OF SYSTEM”
“The main problem with fire protection, as with all construction-related issues in Turkey, is the lack of a system,” said Mataracı, drawing attention to the fact that there are no binding rules for everyone:
“First of all, it is a question mark how necessary it is to comply with a standard regarding fire protection in Turkey. Rather than a main approach throughout the country, each municipality, each institution has created its own regulations and these regulations can be evaded in Turkey in any way, because unfortunately there is no serious application of total quality management in Turkey and everything is under the initiative of individuals or some institutions. Perhaps the most poignant sentence about the fire that broke out in Bolu Kartalkaya Ski Center is the sentence made by Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan, 'We do not know if the building has a fire escape because the permit was given by the Ministry, not us.' Özcan may be completely right within the system that operates in Turkey, but what makes the situation dramatic here is that we also see that this structure has not been established in our country in terms of administration.
“THE SECURITY OF THE PUBLIC CANNOT BE ENTRUSTED TO INDIVIDUALS”
Mataracı continued his words as follows: The ministry may change, the municipalities may change, but the safety of human life cannot be left to any structure or person. In our country, committees that determine how these fire installations should be or that work for each region and each municipality should be formed and the directives of these committees should have authority over all institutions. When our people go on holiday to a hotel, they should be able to stay comfortably not by thinking about the rules in this region, but by trusting the rules applied in the Republic of Turkey.”