No need for earthquake

The first three floors of the 1987-built, seven-storey, 12-flat apartment building, located on East Street in Cevizli District in Maltepe, Istanbul, with a fabric store on the ground floor, collapsed at around 05.40 yesterday morning. The upper floors of the building remained standing on the rubble of the collapsed section. It was determined that 14 people were on the collapsed three floors of the building, where a total of 33 people lived. While 10 people were rescued from the rubble alive by search and rescue teams, one person died in the hospital and the lifeless body of another person was found. Search and rescue efforts for Mesut Bilece, Zeynep İnan, who were considered to be under the rubble, and Hüseyin Özkurt, who was learned to be disabled, continued throughout the day. After the intense work of the teams at night, the lifeless body of Mesut Bilece was found. Thus, the loss of life increased to 3.

Meanwhile, it was learned that one of the three people who lost their lives was Ahmet Muhammet İnan (21), the older brother of Zeynep İnan (19), who was under the rubble.

Their houses are in transformation

It was learned that Mesut Bilece and his family, who were trapped under the rubble, moved to the building that collapsed 11 months ago because their house was undergoing urban transformation. The family's reconstructed house is located two streets behind the collapsed building. Bilece's three children were rescued from the rubble by their own means, while his wife and a guest in their home were rescued by the teams.

Tunnels opened

Istanbul Governor Davut Gül, who coordinated the work at the scene, said: "Here, our search and rescue teams evaluate every situation and work with the precision of a jeweler to ensure that our citizens inside are rescued in a healthy way and that our search and rescue teams are not harmed. They started to demolish the building in a controlled manner, starting from the top. They will both reduce the load of the building above and try to reach our citizens through the tunnels opened at the bottom, as has been done since the morning." Gül said, "Since the ground plus two floors of the building collapsed, there is a sideways tipping situation. Our teams took precautions by placing wedges under the building to prevent it from falling over." Found in the rubble of a partially collapsed building

A controlled demolition effort was carried out by the teams in order to reach 2 people. The teams carried out controlled demolition using the shaving method, starting from the upper floors of the building.

'Urban transformation was talked about, but it did not happen'

Tolga Gürpınar, who was evacuated from the building, said, "I woke up due to the impact of the collapse. We could not use the stairs because the doors were closed. We were evacuated with the fire department's mobile ladder." Stating that they had previously taken an initiative for urban transformation with their neighbors, Gürpınar said: We intended to urban transformation. There was also a 'Half is on Us' campaign. We met with contractors, but we did not put the work into contract. I don't know if a core was taken. We intended, but did not commit to results. I wish we had tied it up.”

They heard voices

Stating that there were cracks in the building, Gürpınar said, “Some of our neighbors who survived say that they heard small 'cracking' sounds before. "It didn't catch my attention," he said.

'He did not accept'

Fatma Turhan, one of the residents of the building, said, “Urban transformation was discussed, but they did not accept it in the apartment. "I think the shop owner did not accept it," said Seriya Balan, adding, "Urban transformation was discussed, but the people living in the building did not want it."

Seal of 2 buildings, evacuation of 3 buildings

Following the collapse of the first 3 floors of a 7-storey building in Maltepe, two buildings on the street, one 7-storey and the other 4-storey, were sealed by municipal teams. In the statement made by the Governorship of Istanbul, it was stated that 3 buildings in the surrounding area were evacuated and added: "A total of 3 buildings and 55 citizens were evacuated as a precaution. A total of 66 places have been reserved in 5 different hotels for our citizens in need of accommodation. "A total of 44 people were accommodated," it was said.

4 times the leak

It was learned that the collapsed building was licensed as ground plus two floors, and then four more floors were illegally constructed. Maltepe Mayor Esin Köymen stated that they had not received any notice about the building before and said, “We opened all the archives in the municipality and checked whether the building was risky. "It's a building built in the 80s," he said.

'We noticed the cracks in April'

Fatma Kaya, who runs the store on the ground floor, stated that she moved in as a tenant in 2024 and said, "Before me, there had been a baklava manufacturer here since the day the building was built. There was a three-ton oven inside, we dismantled it. Apart from that, no column cutting or similar work was done." Stating that they first noticed the cracks in the building last April, Kaya said, "There were no cracks in the shop until April. Then visible cracks started to appear. We took photos and videos and shared them with the building management. Recently, the cracks have gotten bigger."

Architect and construction site manager detained

Within the scope of the investigation initiated by the Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, Hasan Balcı (66), the architect of the building, and Mevlüt Okumuş (70), the construction site manager, were detained. It was learned that the owner of the property, Dursun Basınç, passed away in 2016.

Call for urban transformation

Deputy Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Nuri Aslan, drew attention to the urban transformation works and said, "We, as Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, met with our Provincial Directorate of Environment and Urbanization and declared that the penthouses will be independent units. We passed it unanimously in our assembly and quickly paved the way for urban transformation. Whatever else needs to be done, the state is ready to do everything; but we definitely need the nation to act on this issue." Aslan said, "We will get rid of the psychology of 'My house was 90 square meters and has decreased to 85 square meters'. We will raise Istanbul up together. There is no other solution to this."

Construction peace in Istanbul

There is no official data on the number of illegal multi-storey buildings in Istanbul. Zoning peace applications in Istanbul were realized at the level of independent sections/buildings between 318 thousand and 330 thousand in the period of 2018-2019. It is stated that the number of buildings that do not benefit from the zoning peace and are completely illegal is at least 50 thousand.