A study on public perception on forest fires: the case of İzmir

Most of the forest fires that occur in our country occur due to reasons such as negligence, carelessness and intention. Our country is under the influence of the Mediterranean climate due to its location and this causes summers to be dry in some regions, thus preparing the ground for forest fires. Fighting forest fires and protecting forests are considered as priorities for our country, which has a large area in terms of forest resources. The main reason for choosing İzmir as the subject of the study is that it is rich in forests and forest fires occur frequently here. Forest areas cover 478,547 hectares in İzmir Province and this area constitutes 40% of the provincial land. In this study, the perception of İzmir Forestry Regional Directorate personnel and the people living in İzmir regarding the forest fires that occur in İzmir province was examined and the reasons for the fire according to the participants, precautions taken before the fire, fire extinguishing activities, sensitivity of the forest administration and the people towards fires, the status of the forested lands burned after the fire, the negative effects of the fires, the frequency, intensity and attitudes towards the factors affecting the intensity of the fires were tried to be determined. For this purpose, 2 separate surveys were applied to 179 people residing in Izmir and 20 Izmir Forestry Regional Directorate personnel, and the participants' level of agreement with the statements in the survey was examined. The collected data was analyzed with the Excel program. The majority of the participants in the applied public survey (77.1%) do not work in a profession related to forestry. The participants indicated the carelessness and negligence of people as the main reason for the forest fires. The majority of the participants, who were observed to have developed a positive attitude towards the forestry administration employees, emphasized that the fires had negative effects on the country's economy and climate. The results of the survey applied to 20 people, 10 women and 10 men, who are Izmir Forestry Regional Directorate personnel, showed the human factor as the biggest reason for the fires. While it was concluded that the fire extinguishing personnel showed sufficient sensitivity in terms of fire extinguishing activities, it was agreed that the topographic features of Izmir, the long, hot and dry summers, and the amount of rainfall during and before the fire season due to meteorological conditions affect the frequency, intensity and severity of the forest fires. Keywords: Izmir forest fire, Fire precautions, Fire susceptibility, After fire, Adverse effects of fire.