Arnavutköy Municipality works in many fields to respond to disasters, and has recently established the Arnavutköy Municipality Disaster Training Center (AFEM), where ARKUR team and volunteering citizens can receive trainings on disaster.
Arnavutköy Municipality Disaster Training Center is based in Bolluca. Dr. M. H. Nail Anlar (Deputy District Governor of Arnavutköy), M. H. Haşim Baltacı (Mayor of Arnavutköy), Mustafa Candaroğlu (AK Party District Head), Gökhan Yılmaz, (Istanbul Provincial Director of Disaster and Emergency Management), District Security Director, Provincial Director of National Education and citizens attended the opening ceremony of the center.

After the opening of AFEM, Dr. M. H. Nail Anlar (Deputy District Governor of Arnavutköy), M. H. Haşim Baltacı (Mayor of Arnavutköy), Mustafa Candaroğlu (AK Party District Head) and Gökhan Yılmaz, (Istanbul Provincial Director of Disaster and Emergency Management) visited the center and received information. Later, AFAD and ARKUR organized a search and rescue exercise.

A Volunteers' System Established Under ARKUR
Since our country is in an earthquake zone, volunteer citizens registered at ARKUR and ARKUR's Team will continue to provide trainings to ensure that citizens consciously respond to earthquake in addition to other possible natural disasters including fires and floods. Taking precautions especially for possible natural disasters that may occur in Arnavutköy, ARKUR aims to minimize possible damages in the district with its growing number of volunteers. In this context, Arnavutköy Municipality established the Volunteers' System where ARKUR and citizens can work together in a strong solidarity to respond to disasters, quickly complete the improvement works after disasters, and to plan, direct, support, coordinate and effectively implement the necessary activities.

What Does AFEM Offer?
Built on an open area of 3,000 m² and a closed area of 200 m², AFEM consists of a multi-purpose auditorium, a disaster awareness classroom, practical disaster training modules, an instructor's room and a cafeteria.

Multi-purpose Auditorium
The virtual reality application allows performing fire extinguishing and earthquake simulations. Thanks to the classroom layout stipulated by the Ministry of Health, theoretical and certain practical basic first aid trainings as well as basic search and rescue trainings can be provided.

Disaster Awareness Class
In the classroom, presentations can be made, while also giving participants the opportunity to apply what they learned in the home and kitchen corners after the training. Thus, they can apply do’s and don’ts before, during and after disasters.

112 Emergency Call Module
It is the module containing the single number (112) dial for all emergency calls, recently launched by the Ministry of Interior. In this module, trainees can make emergency calls and provide address information as if they were making a real call.

Fault Line Module
It is a module designed to offer the possibility of seeing how earth moves during an earthquake. We are able to practically demonstrate the movements of both vertical and lateral pulsating fault lines on the module.

Building Oscillation Module
It is a module designed to show how buildings with designs react to the s and p waves of an earthquake. There are 3 different designs on the module. Disaster Information Kiosk It is an information kiosk where trainees and students can test their disaster knowledge. It randomly chooses 15 out of 150 questions and the total number of the questions can be increased. At the end of the test, the correct and incorrect answers are shown on the result screen.

Fire Station
It is the station where practical training will be conducted after the theoretical fire training in classrooms. At this station, trainers inform about how to use fire extinguishers, determine wind directions, and understand the materials used (hoses, nozzles, lances, fire blankets, etc.) and conduct practical trainings.

Rescuing from Well Station
It is the station where it is simulated how to rescue people or other living beings trapped in a well or cave. At this station, trainers draw attention to the lethal effect of some toxic and choking gases heavier than air (methane, etc.) at the bottom of a well or cave, and show the do's in practice. They will show that in this case, we should not immediately intervene in the casualty without wearing personal protective equipment (gas detector, oxygen level detector, fresh air cylinder set, etc.).

Climbing Tower
It is the training tower where working at height can be practiced as one of the search and rescue response methods. It is the station where rescue and rope operations can be performed at all kinds of high altitude according to the capacity of the group requesting training including Arnavutköy Municipality disaster volunteers, non-governmental organizations, ARKUR team personnel and students requesting training from our center.

Debris Station
It is a real debris station, where the state of heavily damaged buildings is simulated at the time of a possible disaster. At this station, trainers will provide theoretical and practical trainings to local disaster volunteers, ARKUR team, students and other trainees on how the debris forms, possible living spaces under debris, how to rescue people under the debris, intervention methods, procedures to approach debris, and environmental safety among other issues.