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BURSA, Turkey - The burial procession of eight Syrian children and a woman who died during a house fire in Bursa, northwestern Turkey, was held on Wednesday.
The fire, reported to have been caused by a stove heater, broke out on Tuesday night in Bursa's Yildirim district. Aged between one and 11, the victims were six siblings, their 31-year-old mother, and two cousins aged 10 and 11, Bursa province, Gov. Yakup Canbolat said in a statement.
The father of the six, who was not at home during the incident, was hospitalized after sustaining injuries while trying to rescue his loved ones from the fire.
"The fire broke out around 11:30 pm [on Tuesday night]. We reached out to them. When we arrived, we noticed four children had already died. They were a very good family and the children always used to walk around this place," Ahmed Jinar, a neighbor, told Rudaw on Wednesday.
The family, who was laid to rest at a cemetery designed for Syrian refugees in Bursa, came from Aleppo. They had fled war at home in 2017 and moved to Bursa.
The family was making a living out of collecting and selling scraps.
The tragic house fire occurred on the first floor of a four-story building.
"There is a strong wind in our city and there are no natural gas lines in many neighborhoods in the Yildirim district. That's why people heat their stoves. We hope that a natural gas line will be built in our Yildirim region and that similar incidents will not occur," Nihat Yesiltas, head of the Republican People's Party (CHP) party office in Yildirim district told Rudaw.
According to data from Bursa local authorities, an estimated 185,000 Syrian refugees live in the city of Bursa, making the city the 7th with the largest number of Syrian refugees in the country.
Turkey hosts up to 3.7 million refugees from war-torn Syria.
The fire, reported to have been caused by a stove heater, broke out on Tuesday night in Bursa's Yildirim district. Aged between one and 11, the victims were six siblings, their 31-year-old mother, and two cousins aged 10 and 11, Bursa province, Gov. Yakup Canbolat said in a statement.
The father of the six, who was not at home during the incident, was hospitalized after sustaining injuries while trying to rescue his loved ones from the fire.
"The fire broke out around 11:30 pm [on Tuesday night]. We reached out to them. When we arrived, we noticed four children had already died. They were a very good family and the children always used to walk around this place," Ahmed Jinar, a neighbor, told Rudaw on Wednesday.
The family, who was laid to rest at a cemetery designed for Syrian refugees in Bursa, came from Aleppo. They had fled war at home in 2017 and moved to Bursa.
The family was making a living out of collecting and selling scraps.
The tragic house fire occurred on the first floor of a four-story building.
"There is a strong wind in our city and there are no natural gas lines in many neighborhoods in the Yildirim district. That's why people heat their stoves. We hope that a natural gas line will be built in our Yildirim region and that similar incidents will not occur," Nihat Yesiltas, head of the Republican People's Party (CHP) party office in Yildirim district told Rudaw.
According to data from Bursa local authorities, an estimated 185,000 Syrian refugees live in the city of Bursa, making the city the 7th with the largest number of Syrian refugees in the country.
Turkey hosts up to 3.7 million refugees from war-torn Syria.
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