Forest Fires Occurred on Border Area between Turkey (Hatay) and Syria

This study focuses on forest fires occurred on border between Turkey (Yayladağı) and Syria. Intestine war in Syria which started in 2011 and expanded in 2012 affected Turkey. The result of dispute, many refuges moved from Syria to Turkey. However the Syrian Government annoyed policy of Turkey that accept the Syrian refugees. In order to stop the refugee accessing in Turkey by Syrian Government, battle around border, and for opening the way to entering Turkey by refugee, caused forest fire. Therefore in last year in this region many forest fires were occurred and spread to Turkey. The forest fires in Yayladağı not only affected the forest region but also threatened the residential areas.The starting points of forest fires and affected regions were determined and evaluated using Geographic Information Systems. The causes of fires were investigated, evaluated by statistical methods. Teams and employees operated for extinguishing the forest fires and the used equipment were investigated. Damages from forest fires were determined. Throughout the study area 25 forest fires occurred during 2012, and 2218 ha areas of forest were destroyed. The value of destroyed forest is approximately 38 million TL.