News out of Türkiye is that authorities are still battling to extinguish a devastating blaze that has raged through the Port of Iskenderun following the massive earthquake on the country’s border with Syria.
The earthquake, said to be the deadliest in Türkiye’s history this century, had its epicentre in the city of Kahramanmaraş, and has claimed the lives of at least 15 000 people, according to the latest reports.
After-effects of the quake, such as the port fire on the country’s Levantine coast, have added to the devastation which authorities have battled to cope with.
The inferno at Iskenderun has been raging despite the best efforts of the likes of Türkiye’s air force to put it out.
Seaborne attempts to extinguish the fire, which has laid waste the port’s container terminal, have so far also been unsuccessful.
What’s happening at Iskenderun at the moment is the worst case of port destruction since the fertiliser chemical blast at the Port of Beirut in 2020.
The magnitude of the 7.8 Richter-scale quake is evident from the impact it had on Iskenderun, some 120 kilometres southwest of Kahramanmaraş.
The fire was caused when stacked containers toppled over due to the aftershock of the quake, causing an acrid stench to spread over the city since the quake.
