Despite combined aerial and sea efforts, the blaze at Iskenderun Port is ongoing, two days after Turkey suffered a massive earthquake which has flattened much of the port city with the death toll rising exponentially.
Turkey’s airforce was deployed yesterday to try and douse the blaze at the wrecked container terminal, but the fire continues to rage this morning.
The fire along with the severe structural damage at the port is expected to result in insurance claims running to hundreds of millions of dollars in what is likely to be the largest port desecration since the explosions registered in Beirut in 2020. The stench of the blaze can be smelt across the city today, with much of Iskenderun also suffering from floods of seawater.
Liners are rerouting ships to alternative ports in the eastern Mediterranean with the port expected to be out of action for months.
Many container stacks topped over at Iskenderun when the earthquake hit on Monday morning sparking the fire, which then spread rapidly.
The port handles around 40,000 teu a month. It is located on the Mediterranean coast in the southern province of Hatay where more than 1,200 buildings have been destroyed from the magnitude 7.8 earthquake. The city lies around 120 km from the epicentre of the quake.
