Our weekly round-up of the local news continues.

Fire Statistics Released

The local Director of the Forestry Commission issued a press statement on local forest fires this week.

Apparently there have been 26 fires so far this year in and around Fethiye.

He claimed 20 of these were caused by people, as follows:

4 by negligence;

4 from cigarettes discarded while still burning;

3 by sun shining through broken glass which had been thrown away by people;

2 by picnic fires not properly put out;

1deliberate arson;

3 by persons unknown.

Add to this the 6 caused by lightning and we have 23 – what happened to the other three fires?

In total these fires have destroyed 13.5 hectares of forest.

The Director also said that, due to quick response times of fire-fighting helicopter, the damage has been minimalized. So there was some good news.

Tragic Death Saves Six

Fourteen-year-old Barış Şimşek was knocked down and severely injured when he ran across the road in Karaçulha this week.

He was taken to the State Hospital where doctors pronounced him brain dead.

His family kept vigil at his bedside for two days and then his father gave permission for his life support systems to be turned off, after doctors had harvested his organs.

His heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and corneas where taken by helicopter ambulance to various places in Turkey – and 6 people received a chance of a new life.

Pirates of the Med

Nevzat Tilkici, head of Fethiye’s Estate Agents’ Association, hit the local headlines this week when he announced a crackdown on ‘foreign born pirate estate agents’.

Tilkici recalled the boom days of 2006 – 2007 when sales of property to foreigners in and around Fethiye hit their peak.

The current slump, he claims, is in part due to the presence of unlicensed foreigners acting as estate agents.

He cites foreigners who buy here then return to their own country and sell the property on to someone else; and the foreigners who live in their houses here during the winter then let them out as holiday lets during the summer.

The Estate Agents Association is determined to tackle the problem, and has fired its first volley with a series of posters and brochures outlining the issue which are being made available at all airports, and in all consular offices across Muğla province.