Planes at the centre of a public row over the Turkey’s ability to fight fires, could not be used by the Turkish government to fight the raging forest fires in Izmir province because the company that owns them had lost the fire-fighting tender, the Gazete Duvar news portal reported on Monday.
Gazete Duvar quoted Mehmet Erol, the Acting Head of the Izmir Regional Directorate of Forestry as saying that the bid for the fire extinguishing tender by the Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK) had been too high, contradicting with remarks by the country’s forestry minister.
Erol said the THK bid had been too high and as a result another firm won the tender. The ministry, therefore, has not been able to be using the aircraft against firefighting.
“The THK lost the helicopter tender to another firm as it bid too high. It was the same for the aircraft [tender]. [This year], we had agreed on an amount which was the same last year. [However,] the THK asked for a two-fold [increase]. That is why we could not use aircraft [this year],” said the forestry officer, answering questions by the reporters at the Aegean Region Chamber of Industry (EBSO) on Monday.
Erol added that there was no weakness against the Izmir forest fire as extra helicopters had been hired.
Raging forest fires in Izmir last week have given rise to a debate between the opposition and the ruling party officials over whether Turkey’s related institutions have sufficient and suitable fire-fighting aircraft.
Opposition lawmakers and critics have accused the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of not deploying all existing means to fight the fires in Izmir as they had only been brought under control 53 hours after erupting.
In response to criticism over the failure to use planes to put out the Izmir fires, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli had said last week that the THK’s six aircraft were not suitable for employment as three of them have damaged motors while the other three are leaking oil.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a THK official told news portal Bianet that the THK had six CL-215 firefighting planes, which were kept idle during the fires last week.
“The ministry turned down our offer to help in the fire in Mugla. The company that received the tender does not have a firefighting aircraft in hand. We are always ready for the task,” the unnamed THK official said.
According to the Bianet report, the party that was awarded the tender is an architect’s firm.
Erol announced that the wildfires in Izmir have ravaged more than 500 hectares (over 1,200 acres) of land.
Turkey’s forest fires trigger debate on fire-fighting aircraft capacity
The post Loss of tender led to planes not being used in Izmir Forest blaze appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/08/27/loss-of-tender-led-to-planes-not-being-used-in-izmir-forest-blaze/
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