Disaster experiences of spontaneous volunteers: An evaluation on fires in the Mediterranean Region

Türkiye has been exposed to many natural, technological and man-made disasters throughout its history and these disasters have brought about various damages and losses. Especially in the last few years, various disasters such as earthquakes, floods and fires have caused continuous losses and damages in the country. One of these disasters is the largest and destructive forest fires in Turkey's history, which started on July 28, 2021, in Manavgat, Antalya and continued for 15 days in 17 provinces, affecting residential areas. It can be said that this disaster, in which local, national, international and voluntary resources were used, is an important example of cooperation, solidarity and organization for different actors. This study focuses on the experiences of volunteers who actively worked in the fire areas during the 2021 forest fire. Phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The data obtained were analyzed with MAXQDA 2022 program. As a result of the analysis, three themes were identified: perception of volunteerism, intervention process, difficulties and recommendations. It was determined that the participants had the perception of volunteerism of being useful to the society, serving, not expecting anything in return and helping and this situation affected them positively. It was determined that they experienced difficulties in the disaster area in terms of ignorance and lack of awareness, presence of unintended people in the region and lack of coordination, which negatively affected the volunteers. Participants think that the difficulties encountered will be solved through social education, awareness raising and inter-institutional cooperation.