Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

There is a report on another board of a huge fire in Alsancak area. Does anybody know where it is & which way it is travelling as with these high winds it could be moving very quickly.

I've just had a call off my friend. She is by the Riverside hotel. Apparantly the fire is on the mountain in that area.
My daughter was driving pase escape beach and she said that the helicopters were flying over with water buckets,
and the army are present in that area.

Spoke to Ertan at Kervan who says it is opposite Escape Beach (He's been watching with binocs). Helis are dealing and seems to be under control now Wake up call to all. Wind in our direction (Karaman) papers and dogs and us all ready to go. Scary when you can smell the smoke.....

It's in Ilgaz and people are being evacuated from there, wind seems to have been taking it towards Girne direction.

In the past I have been evacuated 3 times from where I lived, very frightening. The army do a fantastic job in these cases. I have often asked why there could not be a fire engine along the Kasiyaka to Karaolanoglu strip, could be manned by volunteers ie like life boats in uk in some areas, but perhaps that is not feasible, just a thought. Grime and Guzelyurt is quite away and perhaps could be contained quickly if engines were nearby. I see there is an enormous fire in Smethwick in UK caused by a Chinese lantern, I have seen lots of these being set into the sky here after weddings parties etc. absolute madness in a tinder dry place like Cyprus, should be banned.

Heavens, I'm in Yesiltepe, but in UK at the moment. Thank heavens for boards like this which keep us informed. Will ask some friends to check for us in a couple of days when things have died down, very worrying though.

Its on as a breaking news story on LGC news
http://www.lgcnews.com/forest-fire-rage ... -alsancak/
Helicopter is still dousing fires using seawater.

ozankoys
I have kept everyone up to date on the other forum as I have been monitoring the situation. But whether there is another fire West of Lapta now I do not know at the moment.

melnotgibson
The helicopter departed the scene some time ago and parked up on scrub land on the seaside of Alsancak but kept its engines going and then took off again and loaded up with water and headed west so whether there is another fire to the west of Lapta I do not know at this point.

Thank you for keeping us informed let us all pray the fire is under control now.

Well as far as I know the original fire is now out and the fire services are carrying out the usual dampening procedures to make sure that it does not flare up again. Fingers crossed.

AJ, re msg 8, what other forum?

rocking wrote:I have often asked why there could not be a fire engine along the Kasiyaka to Karaolanoglu strip, could be manned by volunteers ie like life boats in uk in some areas, but perhaps that is not feasible, just a thought.

There is a fire engine in Karsiyaka at the sea-front fire watch tower about 500m to the East of Sirin Yali. It has been there for about 3 years now. The watch tower has been there for years and is fully manned from May through to at least the end of October (and later depending on the weather). They have special cameras that can detect hot spots along the mountain range.

AJ, thanks for your PM. I replied, but it appears to be stuck in the outbox! I am ex RaF aircrew, hence the name!

AJ, thanks for your PM. I replied, but it appears to be stuck in the outbox! I am ex RaF aircrew, hence the name!

The fire was on the hill directly behind our villa and we are on the first road just after Green Heights. It started at about 1.30 but we were not aware until a guy who lives somewhere on the Ilgaz road came up on a motor bike to tell us he had seen it. Definitely a good Samaritan as he had phoned the fire brigade before arriving and leapt into action with a hose we have connected outside. Just as well he did as all the fire engines went up towards Ilgaz and it was about 20 minutes before they came to us. Once they arrived they parked on our drive and got straight on to it and they were absolutely brilliant. Other engines went farther down the road and hosed up the hill from there. Plus as someone has already said, a helicopter was collecting sea water and dumping that as well. Loads of water containers turned up to keep the engines going and they were all great and also army arrived to lend a hand. The only problem was our electric went off and we could only supply them with not very cold water to drink so my husband went to Starling to see if he could get some cold but all warm in their fridges. Once it was pretty much damped down we then had the police descend on us to find out the cause followed by the electricity board as it seemed to start near electricity poles. I think we had all the chiefs of police and fire and ended up with about 30 people from all these departments on our drive trying to establish the how it started. Fortunately although it took a long time to control no-one was hurt and as far as we know no properties were damaged.

Thanks for that information Jo did not know it was manned as when I had Rita on the Rocks was not manned then, but of course that was years ago. Will remember that. Thanks.

And yet there are still residents of Alsancak that regularly have a garden bonfire..................................

Let's hope today has been a wakeup call................

According to http://www.haberkktc.com/haber/alsancak ... 69880.html the fire burnt about 100 dönüms of forest/scrubland "to a cinder" According to my calculations, that is equivalent to approximately 75 full-size football pitches

By the way, you might be interested to learn that fire brigades from the British bases apparently helped in the operation to extinguish the fire.

iancrumpy wrote:According to http://www.haberkktc.com/haber/alsancak ... 69880.html the fire burnt about 100 dönüms of forest/scrubland "to a cinder" According to my calculations, that is equivalent to approximately 75 full-size football pitches

By the way, you might be interested to learn that fire brigades from the British bases apparently helped in the operation to extinguish the fire.

Where did you hear that Ian, this was pretty much on my doorstep and certainly from the uphill end there was no sign of British Forces?

Jonnie wrote: Where did you hear that Ian, this was pretty much on my doorstep and certainly from the uphill end there was no sign of British Forces?

Hi Jonnie - in the given haberkktc report it writes that TC/Turkish crews received help from "ingiliz üslerine bağlı itfaiye ekipleri" which means "fire crews serving on the British bases". Later in the report it tells of a helicopter from the British bases. It's not clear in the report, but my guess is that the "ingiliz ekipler" were just the ones on the helicopter.

While we're at it, I translated "ormanlık alani" as forest/scrubland. As I remember, there are few trees in that area ... and even fewer now - in any case "woodland/scrubland" would have been a better translation.

iancrumpy wrote:

Jonnie wrote: Where did you hear that Ian, this was pretty much on my doorstep and certainly from the uphill end there was no sign of British Forces?

Hi Jonnie - in the given haberkktc report it writes that TC/Turkish crews received help from "ingiliz üslerine bağlı itfaiye ekipleri" which means "fire crews serving on the British bases". Later in the report it tells of a helicopter from the British bases. It's not clear in the report, but my guess is that the "ingiliz ekipler" were just the ones on the helicopter.

While we're at it, I translated "ormanlık alani" as forest/scrubland. As I remember, there are few trees in that area ... and even fewer now - in any case "woodland/scrubland" would have been a better translation.

Thanks Ian, pretty much just scrubland really. There was only one helicopter, Blue and white no British markings. Maybe they were on standby?