Nine people have been arrested, including the owner of the hotel that caught fire at a busy ski resort. The death toll is 76 dead and more than 50 injured. President Erdoğan declared Wednesday a day of national mourning.
A fire ripped through a 12-story hotel in Turkey’s northwest Bolu province, killing at least 76 people. According to authorities, at least two of them died after jumping from the building to escape the flames.
More than 50 other people were also injured in the fire at the Grand Kartal hotel in the Kartalkaya ski resort of Bolu, according to Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. The fire broke out at a time of year when hotels are crowded, while schools across the country are on winter break for two weeks.
“Our hearts are broken. We are in mourning“, Mr. Yerlikaya told reporters outside the hotel. “You must know that whoever is responsible for this pain will not escape justice“, he added.
Nine people have been arrested as part of the investigation into the fire. The Turkish Minister of Justice, Yilmaz Tuncsaid the hotel owner was among those detained for questioning as part of the investigation.
The government has appointed six prosecutors to lead it. The fire is believed to have started in the hotel restaurant before quickly spreading throughout the building.
The hotel had more than 230 registered guests at the time of the fire, which was reported at 3:27 a.m. local time (1:27 a.m. CET). Firefighters began responding at 4:15 a.m. local time.
Yerlikaya said 45 of the 76 people confirmed dead have been identified, while efforts to identify the remaining victims continue. The bodies of those identified were handed over to their families.
According to the Turkish Minister of Health, Kemal Memisogluat least one of the injured is in critical condition, while 17 others were quickly treated and released from hospital, having suffered only minor injuries.
The event caused shock waves throughout the country after details of what the victims experienced emerged.
Atakan Yelkovan, a guest staying on the third floor of the hotel, told Turkish media that chaos reigned on the upper floors, as other guests rushed to try to escape.
“People on the upper floors were screaming. They clung to the sheets…some tried to jump” said Mr. Yelkovan.
Necmi Kepcetutan, a ski instructor at the hotel, said he was sleeping when the fire broke out and he rushed out of the building. He was able to help around 20 guests out of the hotel, but says it was incredibly difficult to get out as smoke quickly filled the hotel floors, making it difficult to locate the hotel. EMERGENCY EXIT.
Images of the fire circulating on social media and Turkish television channels show the roof and upper floors of the hotel on fire. Witnesses and initial reports suggest the hotel’s fire detection system failed. Reports also indicate that the wooden cladding on the exterior of the hotel may have accelerated the spread of the fire.
“My wife smelled burning. The alarm did not go off“, Mr. Yelkovan said. “We tried to go upstairs, but we couldn’t, there were flames. We went down and went out“.
Turkish Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told reporters that the hotel had undergone fire safety and proficiency inspections in 2021 and 2024. Ersoy said the fire department did not Nothing negative was reported during these two inspections.
ADVERTISEMENTMr Yelkovan also said it took fire crews about an hour to arrive at the hotel. Interior Minister Yerlikaya says the delay is due to the fact that part of the 161-room hotel is on the side of a cliff, which hampered rescue operations.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that a national day of mourning would be observed on Wednesday. He added that all flags on government buildings and Turkish diplomatic missions abroad would be flown at half-mast in tribute to the victims.
In a speech on Tuesday, the Turkish leader said: “Unfortunately, we received very sad news this morning from Bolu, Kartalkaya. Our brothers and sisters were killed and injured in a hotel fire“.
Mr. Erdoğan stressed that all necessary measures will be taken to determine what happened and how the fire was caused, and that anyone found responsible for this tragic incident will be held accountable.
ADVERTISEMENTOther hotels at the ski resort were evacuated as a precaution and guests were placed in various hotels in Bolu province.
