BY OKTAY EKSI
HURRIYET- According to figures cited in news stories, thousands of hectares of trees were reduced to ashes by the forest fire which started last Thursday. Not only were trees taken, but other beings born there, including insects, plants, ants and rabbits, lost their lives. We don't know what started the fire yet. It might have been lightning, arson, a cigarette butt, or broken glass kindling the dry grass. Whatever the cause, according to our economic desk, this fire has cost us 1 billion YTL. In other words, 10 million trees were reduced to ashes, nearly 2.5 million of them Calabrian Pine, each of which costs nearly 400 YTL. The material damage can be compensated for one way or another, but the problem is that life in that region has been extinguished until nature renews itself with butterflies, grass, snakes, etc.
There's something I don't understand. We know that our forests, especially those in the Mediterranean and Aegean regions, face a great forest fire threat every summer. If we look at the issue only materially, our financial losses total at least $1 billion per year. So why don't we spend the money necessary to minimize these losses? Or why don't we find an effective remedy through additional funds and measures, as it's clear that the steps up to now have fallen short? If we suffer losses of nearly $5 billion over four years, wouldn't it be reasonable to invest $500 million to prevent this?
So what can we do? Firstly, our fire warning system should be made more effective. As cell phones are very common in Turkey, it should be the easiest thing to notify authorities of a forest fire, no matter where it starts, in the first five or 10 minutes by calling the fire warning center at 177. Why hasn't the Forest Service publicized this number so everyone knows it by heart? But this isn't enough. The key thing is to teach people to avoid doing things which cause fires. This could be done through intense public awareness campaigns at schools, homes, on TV and everywhere, not through warnings you hear a few times a year.
Thirdly, does the Forest Service have enough well-trained people to put out fires? They say they do, but clearly they don't. Unless more people are hired, and they are all well-trained as in developed countries, we can't expect them to do their jobs. In addition, unless volunteer units made up of local civilians are established and are trained through drills, we will still fall short. Then there remains the duty of putting technology to use and preparing an infrastructure for this. Of course, if it's not too much trouble for our officials!