A BLAZE has engulfed the roof of Istanbul’s historic Haydarpasa train station building on the Asian side of the city of Istanbul.
Firefighters battled the blaze, which is believed to have started during building work as part of extensive restoration at the site, authorities said. Welding work or a short- circuit have been blamed for starting the fire.
Trains were expected to start running again within hours of the fire being put out.
Flames were clearly seen across the Bosporus from where fireboats sprayed water onto the burning roof.
via Fire ravaged Istanbul’s historic Haydarpasa train station – Liverpool News – News – Liverpool Daily Post.
As investigations seek to shed light on the cause of Sunday’s blaze at the historical Haydarpaşa train station, citizens remain skeptical, calling on civil society and experts to demand protection of the landmark building. An investigation team is assigned to cooperate with the state prosecutor in analyzing the cause of the fire
Officials have begun investigating Sunday's fire at the Haydarpaşa train station. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÜREL
Officials have begun investigating Sunday’s fire at the Haydarpaşa train station. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÜREL
Time has stopped at 3:17 for Istanbul’s historical Haydarpaşa train station, the exact minute the building’s roof caught fire Sunday evening. But it is not just the clock on the building’s front façade that has stopped: Life has also halted at Haydarpaşa, which normally receives hundreds of passengers from across the country each day. Instead, the station smells of ash and there is a pessimistic air.
Passengers took a deep breath filled with sorrow as the Eminönü-Kadıköy ferry passed in front of the partly burned building.
“I have no words to express my sorrow for Haydarpaşa,” said Emine Deveci, 48, on the ferry Monday morning. Another passenger, Sadiye Çoplan, 66, said, “I burst into tears when I saw Haydarpaşa burning, it carries value that cannot be bought with money.” Çoplan also said she hoped the fire was a result of carelessness and not anyone’s nefarious intent.
Other people expressed doubt on the cause of the fire. “Haydarpaşa has often been a target for rent-making,” Mehmet Zaman, 58, an Ankaran cook, told the Daily News while waiting at Haydarpaşa for the Ankara express train, adding that civil society and experts had to raise their voice for the protection of the building. “It is a shame they did not extinguish the fire from the air.”
“Any possibility that the fire was set intentionally, or any irregularity, will be explored to the smallest detail,” said Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım at a press conference Monday.
A fact-finding team is expected to prepare of a report about the cause of the fire. The team will analyze the scene with the state prosecutor, Selahattin Aydoğdu.
Istanbul City Planners Chairman Tayfun Kahraman told the Daily News very strict measures had to be taken during repair work on such buildings, with structures containing wood as one of the main building components. “It is obvious that the contractor was not as careful as it should have been,” he said.
The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in December last year approved an urban transformation project for Haydarpaşa and the surrounding area. The project aimed to turn Haydarpaşa into a commercial and tourist center, with the station also being used as a hotel.
The fire seems like a message that the building will soon be used for rent-making purposes, according to a written statement from the Construction Engineers Chamber’s governing board. “A decision that the historical building cannot be used as a train station anymore, for security reasons, [is very likely in the near future],” the statement said.
“The fire at Haydarpaşa brought the plans for the area’s urban transformation project on the agenda once more,” Orhan Silier, chairman of Turkey’s Economic and Social History Foundation, told the Daily News in a Monday phone interview. “[People’s sensitivity to the fire at Haydarpaşa] is a clear indicator of how dear it is to them and what a mistake the application an urban transformation project in the area would be.”
“Yekpare” is a storyteller which narrates the 8500 year story of Istanbul. The story embraces symbols from Pagans to Roman Empire, from Byzantine Empire to Latin Empire, and finally from Ottoman Empire to Istanbul at the present day.
Haydarpaşa Train Station, with its brilliant architectural forms, is the building on which the story is projected. The connection between middle east to west has been provided by Istanbul and Haydarpaşa since 1906. In the 50’s it served as a door for millions of internal emigrants who have triggered the chaos in Istanbul’s dialectical daily life scenes.The project’s conceptual, political and geographical positioning, the location’s depth of field and the fact that the entire show can be watched from Kadıköy coast; make “Yekpare” a dramatic presentation.
The first day of the performance also marks the 47th deathday of Nazım Hikmet Ran, the famous Turkish poet. We started out with a quote from his epic novel, “Human Landscapes from My Country”: “At Haydarpaşa Train Station, in the spring of 1941, it is three o’clock. Sun, exhaustion and rush lay on the stairs…”
‘YEKPARE’ (monolithic) from nerdworking on Vimeo.
Art Direction & Visuals:
Deniz Kader – Candaş Şişman
Music & Sound Design:
Görkem Şen
Project Management:
Erdem Dilbaz
Modelling: Gökhan Uzun – Can Dinlenmiş (prospektif.org)
Special Thanks to: Efor Production, Visio – Vox, Sinevizyon, Yakup Çetinkaya, Gökhan Kurtuluş, Lokman Doğmuş, Baran Güleşen, Ümit Özdemir, Tolga Dizmen, Yunus Dölen, Murat Durusoy, Ahmet Türkoğlu, Mustafa Nurdoğdu, Burhan Ersan.
Istanbul’s historic Haydarpasa train station has been severely damaged by a fire which engulfed the roof of the building.
The blaze broke out while restoration work was being carried out on the early 20th century structure on Sunday, officials confirmed.
Firefighters in fireboats battled the flames for several hours, using water cannons to extinguish the flames. There were no casualties in the incident, but the fire damaged ‘most of the roof and the fourth floor’ according to Selami Ozturk, local mayor of the Kadikoy district.
Hot slate roof: Flames rip through the upper level of Haydarpasa train station
Rescue mission: Fireboats used seawater pumped from cannon to extinguish the blaze
The cause of the fire is now being investigated. Welding or an electrical short circuit is suspected.
Haydarpasa was built in 1908 on the Asian side of Istanbul, bisected by the Bosporus Strait, as part of German Empire’s ambitious Berlin-Baghdad railway project aimed at gaining control and influence in the region.
It is regarded as an architectural wonder, with flights of marble stairs leading to the ground floor from where passengers board trains from several tracks. The monument, covered by textured sandstone, sits on a foundation of hundreds of timber piles, hammered into the seabed.
Eyup Muhcu, head of Turkey’s Architects’ Chamber, said the building was considered to be a historic monument.
National treasure: Anxious crowds gathered to see if the historic station could be saved
On target: Jets of water hammer the facade of the building as the flames recede
via Istanbul’s historic Haydarpasa station damaged after blaze rips through roof | Mail Online.
Rescue mission: Fireboats used seawater pumped from cannon to extinguish the blaze
National treasure: Anxious crowds gathered to see if the historic station could be saved
On target: Jets of water hammer the facade of the building as the flames recede