News

Celebrations marking the 312th anniversary of the Istanbul Fire Department are ongoing. Events are being held across Istanbul throughout Firefighter Week. As part of these celebrations, demonstrations were performed in Sultanahmet Square featuring the historic "Tulumbacılar" (traditional manual fire pump crews), modern firefighting teams, and the K9 Search and Rescue team.
The events—attended by Fire Department Head Remzi Albayrak, IMM Council members, IMM and fire department executives, and numerous guests from the fire service—drew great interest from the public and tourists alike. Our training center’s mobile training unit and "Hızır Acil" (Rapid Medical Response) teams conducted activities on-site aimed at raising public awareness.

The program began with a demonstration by the K9 Search and Rescue team, followed by a display illustrating how both the traditional *Tulumbacılar* and modern firefighting teams respond to fires, using a miniature wooden building set up in the square. First, the firefighting methods of the *Tulumbacılar* from bygone eras were visually demonstrated; arriving at the scene with a piston-operated manual pump, they proceeded to extinguish the fire by pumping water. The "Tulumbacılar"s performance received thunderous applause from the audience.

Following the "Tulumbacılar", modern firefighting teams conducted a drill demonstrating their own fire response techniques. Citizens and tourists gathered in Sultanahmet Square watched the demonstrations with great interest and applauded enthusiastically.