Fire breaks out at Turkish disaster management agency building

Duvar English

The Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) on March 21 announced that a fire broke out at one of their buildings in their headquarters in the capital Ankara. The AFAD said the fire was brought under control shortly afterwards.

Announcing the fire on Twitter, the AFAD said “Today, around 5 a.m., a small fire broke out in the administrative office where daily files are located in the annex building where the renovation works continue, and it was contained in a short time with fire extinguishers. The investigation into the cause of the fire is continuing.”

After the fire, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Gamze Taşcıer submitted a parliamentary question addressing Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, whom the AFAD is affiliated with, ANKA News Agency reported.

“Does your Ministry consider the fire in the documents section of the central building of AFAD, which has become controversial after the earthquakes in our country, as a suspicious situation? At a time when there were so many discussions on the AFAD, we learned that a fire broke out in the documents section of AFAD and some documents were burned. Even children do not believe that this is a coincidence. Obviously, someone foresees a change of government (in the elections) and wants some 'troublesome documents' to disappear. What documents were in that section? Who had the authority to enter that section?” Taşçıer asked Soylu.

Main opposition bloc Nation Alliance's presidential candidate and Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said on Twitter that "Please don't burn the buildings when burning the documents :)".

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