For disasters, city gets new emergency vehicles
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 11, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Istanbul residents like to shake their heads as ambulances, shabby-looking and usually stuck in traffic, crawl by. The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality is putting a new fleet of state of the art emergency response vehicles on the roads. Mayor Kadir Topbaş says this will put Istanbul’s response teams ahead of all other Turkish cities
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has put 12 of the world’s most modern civil defense vehicles into service. Mayor Kadir Topbaş introduced the vehicles worth 4.5 million Turkish Liras to the press and said: "We have the only civil defense team with a ISO-9001 quality certificate among the municipalities of Turkey."
The new vehicles have fortified the municipality’s arsenal against a possible earthquake. The introduction of the vehicles was made in a ceremony at the Dolmabahçe Square by Mayor Topbaş. Professor Mustafa Ilõcalõ, counsellor to the mayor, alongside other deputies, were present at the ceremony, also attended by many citizens.
Mayor Topbaş gave a speech at the ceremony and said with the additional power granted to the civil defense teams of Istanbul from the new vehicles, the teams would guarantee of the Istanbul residents lived in peace and safety. Topbaş added that they were working day and night for an Istanbul that "is not affected by the world but that affects the world". Topbaş said the municipality assisted in an emergency such as accidents or fire very 12 minutes.
Problems worth solving
"From transportation to cultural activities, from environment to adobes all of our services are shaped by this vision but solving the problems of infrastructure is not enough to become a city that affects the world. It is also necessary to be a safe city that intervenes in disasters rapidly"
Topbaş saidÊan international city was one that housed big brains; representatives of complex sectors, such as informatics and finance, and added that you could not pull those strategic sectors and their qualified staff to cities without emergency response systems; ones that are immune to disasters. "More importantly, you would not have any hope for the future in such a city" Topbaş said.
Topbaş said the historical depth of Istanbul placed it among the world’ top cities but at the same time, created unique difficulties in times of emergency with its narrow streets and wooden buildings. Istanbul’s civil defenses is being modified accordingly, Topbaş said, and gave the example of special fire trucks that have been bought to fit through narrow streets.
Topbaş also gave information on the new vehicles:
"The command control vehicle provides uninterrupted communication under extraordinary circumstances and can take pictures with a range of 600 meters" Topbaş said and then continued: "The vehicle also contains two computers with internet access, a mobile meteorology station, an uninterruptible power supply, a printer, a fax, Êa scanner Êand an LCD monitor for viewing the captured images." Topbaş said this 4x4 vehicle cost the municipality 624,000 liras.
Quality control
Other new vehicles include five rescue boats for responding to accidents at sea, each of Êwhich cost approximately 40,000 liras; 5 rescue vehicles that could be used in traffic accidents or disasters worth 3.6 million liras and a rescue crane at a cost of 156,000, liras
Topbaş said the biggest proof of their sensitivity for possible disasters was their rescue team’s ISO-9001 Quality Certificate. The team consists of 113 personnel, four K-9 dogs and 23 vehicles according to Topbaş. Fortifying civil defense teams will not be the only measure in the fight against disasters, Topbaş said and continued: "Because we do not aim to rescue people under debris, we aim to not to have them there at the first place."
After the speeches given at the ceremony, Mayor Topbaş cut ribbons and put the vehicles into service officially.
The new vehicles have fortified the municipality’s arsenal against a possible earthquake. The introduction of the vehicles was made in a ceremony at the Dolmabahçe Square by Mayor Topbaş. Professor Mustafa Ilõcalõ, counsellor to the mayor, alongside other deputies, were present at the ceremony, also attended by many citizens.
Mayor Topbaş gave a speech at the ceremony and said with the additional power granted to the civil defense teams of Istanbul from the new vehicles, the teams would guarantee of the Istanbul residents lived in peace and safety. Topbaş added that they were working day and night for an Istanbul that "is not affected by the world but that affects the world". Topbaş said the municipality assisted in an emergency such as accidents or fire very 12 minutes.
Problems worth solving
"From transportation to cultural activities, from environment to adobes all of our services are shaped by this vision but solving the problems of infrastructure is not enough to become a city that affects the world. It is also necessary to be a safe city that intervenes in disasters rapidly"
Topbaş saidÊan international city was one that housed big brains; representatives of complex sectors, such as informatics and finance, and added that you could not pull those strategic sectors and their qualified staff to cities without emergency response systems; ones that are immune to disasters. "More importantly, you would not have any hope for the future in such a city" Topbaş said.
Topbaş said the historical depth of Istanbul placed it among the world’ top cities but at the same time, created unique difficulties in times of emergency with its narrow streets and wooden buildings. Istanbul’s civil defenses is being modified accordingly, Topbaş said, and gave the example of special fire trucks that have been bought to fit through narrow streets.
Topbaş also gave information on the new vehicles:
"The command control vehicle provides uninterrupted communication under extraordinary circumstances and can take pictures with a range of 600 meters" Topbaş said and then continued: "The vehicle also contains two computers with internet access, a mobile meteorology station, an uninterruptible power supply, a printer, a fax, Êa scanner Êand an LCD monitor for viewing the captured images." Topbaş said this 4x4 vehicle cost the municipality 624,000 liras.
Quality control
Other new vehicles include five rescue boats for responding to accidents at sea, each of Êwhich cost approximately 40,000 liras; 5 rescue vehicles that could be used in traffic accidents or disasters worth 3.6 million liras and a rescue crane at a cost of 156,000, liras
Topbaş said the biggest proof of their sensitivity for possible disasters was their rescue team’s ISO-9001 Quality Certificate. The team consists of 113 personnel, four K-9 dogs and 23 vehicles according to Topbaş. Fortifying civil defense teams will not be the only measure in the fight against disasters, Topbaş said and continued: "Because we do not aim to rescue people under debris, we aim to not to have them there at the first place."
After the speeches given at the ceremony, Mayor Topbaş cut ribbons and put the vehicles into service officially.