Two die after being electrocuted in middle of street during rainfall in Turkey’s İzmir

Duvar English

In a blood-chilling scandal, two people died on July 12 after being electrocuted in the middle of a street in Turkey’s western İzmir province during heavy rainfall.

The incident occurred at Konak district’s Enver Dündar Başar Street where thousands of people pass by daily.

44-year-old İnanç Öktemay was electrocuted when he stepped into the water-filled street while trying to escape from the rainfall.

His friend, 23-year-old Özge Ceren Deniz was also caught in the current while trying to help Öktemay, suddenly falling to the ground. Both people died at the hospital while the street is closed to access.

Deniz was a 5th year medical student at the İzmir Democracy University. Meanwhile, Öktemay's social media post from 2014 resurfaced, in which he quoted Albert Camus' remarks of "One of the ways to understand a country is to know how people die there."

The locals and shopkeepers have blamed the electricity firm and municipality for not fixing the exposed wires on the sewer on the street for years.

Eyewitness 58-year-old İsa Yaman told ANKA News Agency that “I saw the incident from across the street, I couldn't intervene. The electric wires have been there for six years. I got electrocuted twice in the foot. I barely survived, otherwise I would have died. I have been warning them for how many years. I said, 'There is electricity here, fix it’. They left it unfixed.”

Ahmet Güner (52) told DHA “I am a shopkeeper 20 meters away. It is a very sad event. That (sewer) has been malfunctioning for years. So it is a recurring situation as I understand it. It’s a point where electricity pipes and wires pass. A few months ago, on a rainy day, I saw water boiling in a puddle there due to an electrical leakage. They came and intervened at that moment, but as far as I understand, the problem was not solved.”

“We couldn't get it fixed for years. We called the municipality, we called (electricity firm) TEDAŞ, but we couldn't get it fixed for years,” another person said.

Meanwhile, it came to light that a local newspaper, Ege Telgraf, warned about the sewer and exposed wires at the street back in 2019 in a reporting with the title of "Does someone have to die for a solution?"

"Electricity cables passing under the ground pose a danger of death... Due to the electrical leakage occurring in an area of one and a half meters, the (pavement is) constantly hot. It is feared that there may be a possible loss of life as many people are electrocuted while walking. Shopkeepers complained about the indifference of the authorities, saying that there has been an electricity leakage here for a long time and a stray dog died because of this," the reporting noted, warning about the leakage five years ago.

The head of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers, Mahir Ulutaş, said in a social media post that there was an insulation defect in the wires where the incident took place according to their İzmir branch.

In another post, the chamber’s İzmir branch called for the nationalisation of electricity firms in the country.

In a statement, GDZ Electricity Distribution Company, responsible for İzmir’s electricity, argued that they were not responsible for the sewers in question.

An İzmir prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the incident, and the sewers in the area will be opened to investigate the cause of the electricity leakage.

Last month, a fire broke out in southeastern Diyarbakır and Mardin provinces, which is believed to be caused by the electricity firm DEDAŞ, killing 15 people.