Fire Outbreak On Construction Site

A fire forced the evacuation of an entire Bursa Community new hotel building site and sent five people to hospital early Tuesday.

Fire crews were called to the location in Bursa just after 9:30 a.m. and found a fire contained in one of the elevator shafts and on the sixth floor of the 13-storey building.

"My dog woke me up. I smelled the smoke and I just stepped onto my balcony and saw a whole section at the building was burning," said nearby resident Qusai Ahmad, who lives in the next building. “There was a lot of smoke and flames. All the workers was scared, terrified. They just wanted to escape the building."

Bursa Fire Platoon Chief Canalp Berkdemir said crews were able to extinguish the fire and made multiple rescues from building. Workers on the sixth-floor were helped down to the main floor where they were assessed by paramedics.

"The fire was contained to one shaft with extensive smoke damage to the sixth floor," said Berkdemir.

Earlier on Tuesday, Bursa Paramedic Service told the News that three people, as well as a cat, were taken to the hospital in stable condition and two were transported in critical condition.

This afternoon, Bursa Fire officials confirmed the number of people taken to hospital.

Berkdemir said workers who were not hospitalized and required shelter from the fire earlier are back to work and could carry on with their jobs an hour afterwards.

Berkdemir said the cause of the fire is under investigation.

"We have two investigators assigned as well as the Bursa Fire Marshal at this time," he said.

Pat Oliver of Dynamix Engineering who’s an engineer currently in charge at the site with the elevator installations said crews are assessing the damage.

"Right now our major priority is getting the building systems up and running, and, the safety of our employees,” he said.