Girl saves family’s lives in house fire
AN EIGHT-year-old girl saved her family’s lives after an unattended candle set fire to their Lefkoşa home during a power cut in the early hours of Monday.
Eda Sivri woke her mother, father and twoyear-old brother as smoke and flames spread through their house in Şehit Mehmet Hasan Tuna Sokak, giving them just enough time to escape.
Eda’s mother Ebru, 29, told Cyprus Today: “I don’t understand how, but although Eda can’t usually get up for school, she said she was woken by a feeling and heard noises she thought were from the TV.
“When she came running to our room, the children’s bedroom was already filled with smoke and as soon as we grabbed the children we all ran out of the building.
“My daughter has missed her exams as she has nothing left from her school work but we can only be thankful that, thanks to her, we are all still alive.”
Elsewhere, farm- and forestland fires, fuelled by high temperatures and strong winds, sparked panic across the country.
Firemen, Forestry Department staff, police and the military battled for four hours to contain a blaze which broke out on the mountain slopes south of Alevkayası on Thursday afternoon as a result of an exploding mortar round. The flames tore through some 100 dönüms of land.
A fire on Tuesday destroyed crops and electric cables worth an estimated 15,000TL near the village of Mormenekşe, after spreading from where an unnamed 81year-old farmer was burning stubble. A water tanker and staff from Yeniboğaziçi Municipality, along with local people, assisted firefighters from Gazimağusa in dousing the flames.
The same day saw fire crews from Girne and Lefkoşa joined by Forestry Department personnel and locals in fighting a blaze that threatened homes and forestland near the Girne District village of Ağırdağ.
Twenty acacia and pine trees were destroyed when fire ravaged 15-dönüms of land between Gürpınar and Yılmazköy on Sunday afternoon — reportedly as a result of a fire drill on a military base which spread out of control.
Fire on land forming part of the British Sovereign Base Areas spread into the TRNC near Beyarmudu on Monday afternoon, destroying crops over a total 185 dönüms of farmland, along with 23 fruit trees, bales of straw and other produce.