A fire raged through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey early on Tuesday during a school holiday, killing at least 76 people — at least two of them when they jumped from the building to escape the flames, officials said.
At least 51 people were injured in the fire at the Grand Kartal hotel in Kartalkaya, in Bolu Province’s Koroglu mountains, about 300km east of Istanbul, Turkish Minister of the Interior Ali Yerlikaya said.
The fire occurred near the start of a two-week winter break for schools, when hotels in the region are packed.
Photo: AP
“Our hearts are broken. We are in mourning, but you should know that whoever is responsible for causing this pain will not escape justice,” Yerlikaya told reporters outside the hotel.
Atakan Yelkovan, a hotel guest staying on the third floor, told the IHA news agency there was chaos on the upper floors as other guests tried to escape, including by trying to climb down from their rooms using sheets and blankets.
“People on the upper floors were screaming. They hung down sheets... Some tried to jump,” Yelkovan said.
Yerlikaya said that 45 of the 76 people killed had been identified, while efforts to identify the others were continuing.
“Forty-five bodies were delivered to their families. We could not [immediately] identify the others,” Yerlikaya said.
Turkish Minister of Health Kemal Memisoglu said that at least one of the injured people was in a serious condition, while 17 other people were treated and released.
The hotel had 238 registered guests, Yerlikaya said.
The fire was reported at 3:27am and the fire department began to respond at 4:15am, he told reporters.
The government appointed six prosecutors to lead an investigation into the blaze, which is believed to have started in the hotel’s restaurant section.
Nine people have been detained as part of the investigation into the fire, Yerlikaya said.
At least two of the people died when they jumped from the building in panic, Bolu Governor Abdulaziz Aydin told the state-run Anadolu news agency earlier.
Those killed included Nedim Turkmen, a columnist for Sozcu newspaper, his wife and two children, the newspaper announced.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a day of national mourning to be observed yesterday.
All flags at government buildings and Turkish diplomatic mission abroad were lowered to half-staff.
Necmi Kepcetutan, a ski instructor at the hotel, said he was asleep when the fire erupted and he rushed out of the building.
He told NTV that he then helped about 20 guests out of the hotel.
The hotel was engulfed in smoke, making it difficult for guests to locate the fire escape, he said.
“I cannot reach some of my students. I hope they are OK,” the ski instructor told the station.
Television images showed the roof and top floors of the hotel on fire.
Witnesses and reports suggested that the hotel’s fire detection system failed to operate.
“My wife smelled the burning. The alarm did not go off,” Yelkovan said. “We tried to go upstairs, but couldn’t, there were flames. We went downstairs and came here [outside].”
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