The magnitude-5.9 earthquake centered in the western province of Kütahya left at least three people died and nearly 100 injured, officials said.

Following examinations of the buildings in Kütahya’s Simav, Şaphane and Gediz districts, 834 buildings were determined to be dangerous to live in while 221 residents were ordered to immediately evacuate their homes, according to a crisis center report.

Houses lack insurance protection

Mandatory earthquake insurance only covers 26.5 percent of houses in the quake-prone country, or about 3,446,820 buildings, the chairman of the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool, or DASK, told Anatolia news agency Sunday.

Although the number of insured buildings has increased compared to the beginning of 2000, DASK aims to see 5.5 million houses in earthquake zones, Chairman Selamet Yazıcı said.

Northwestern Turkey was hit with a large earthquake Aug. 17, 1999, that devastated the city of İzmit and its surrounding area.

The quake that struck Kütahya at 11:15 p.m. Thursday sent terrified residents running from their homes before midnight. The Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory determined that the quake’s epicenter was located in Simav.

The Red Crescent set up 100 tents in Şaphane where 500 blankets were distributed to local residents.

An attempt by a group of engineers to examine the post-earthquake state of a partially collapsed dam containing cyanide-contaminated water in Kütahya has meanwhile been thwarted, the Turkish Union of Engineers’ and Architects’ Chambers, or TMMOB, said in a press release.

With the risk of the cyanide-contaminated water mixing with underground water supplies increased due to the earthquake, TMMOB’s Chamber of Environmental Engineers requested a visit to the industrial wastewater dam for technical research Thursday. However, according to provincial environment and forestry director statements, the owner of the facility, ETİ Gümüş A.Ş., did not allow the engineers to enter the facility.