Hotel fire at popular Turkish ski resort kills 76 and injures dozens
ISTANBUL - A fire that tore through an upscale hotel at a popular ski resort in northern Turkey early Tuesday killed at least 76 people and injured dozens of others, with some of the victims dying after jumping from windows to escape the blaze, Turkish authorities said.
The fire, at the Kartalkaya resort in Bolu province, began at 3:27 a.m. at the Grand Kartal Hotel on the floor where the restaurant was located, officials said. The 12-story hotel was hosting 234 guests at the time the blaze erupted, provincial governor Abdulaziz Aydin told local media outlets.
At least two people died after jumping from windows, he added.
Authorities did not immediately disclose the cause of the fire, and said it was being investigated. Turkey’s justice minister, Yilmaz Tunc, said in a message posted on X that four people, including the owner of the hotel, had been arrested, without detailing the charges or their culpability, if any, for the fire.
Videos showed flames breaching the upper floors of the hotel, built in the style of an A-frame chalet, and bursting from windows on the side that appeared to overlook a cliff. Knotted white sheets could be seen hanging from the hotel’s windows, after apparent attempts by guests to escape.
The fire appeared to be Turkey’s deadliest tragedy since February 2023, when twin earthquakes killed more than 50,000 people in several provinces in southern Turkey - a disaster that highlighted the country’s extensive network of geological fault lines as well as government failures in preparing residential buildings for earthquakes.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, responding to the deaths, declared Wednesday a national day of mourning.
An unidentified man who said he survived Tuesday’s fire told Turkey’s Ekol TV that no alarms went off as the fire raged and that he and his wife woke up to the sounds of other people. Smoke filled the corridors as they escaped with their children, surviving by jumping onto the roof of an adjacent building, he said.
Another survivor interviewed by the Ihlas news agency said that it took more than an hour for the fire brigade to arrive, adding that he could see people screaming in panic on the upper floors.
Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, whose ministry has jurisdiction over hotels, said the Grand Kartal had been inspected twice in recent years, in 2021 and 2024. The hotel was asked to provide “work and fire qualification licenses and they had not received any negative reports after the audit,” Ersoy said during a news conference with other officials at the site of the fire Tuesday.
The hotel had two fire escapes and had been granted a “qualification” by the fire brigade, Ersoy said, adding that “regular checks need to be carried out by the fire brigade.” Fire brigades are run by Turkey’s municipalities.
But Erol Percin, a representative from the Chamber of Engineers and Architects in Bolu, said that the obligation to inspect the hotel “lies directly with the ministry” of culture and tourism.
Baris Salgur, an employee from a hotel next door to the Grand Kartal, told the state-run Anadolu news agency that he went outside after hearing noises early Tuesday and saw people at the windows calling for help.
When the upper floors caught fire, two women threw themselves out of windows, Salgur said.
IELEV, a German-language private school in Istanbul, posted condolences on Instagram for two of the school’s students - two young girls - as well as their families who died in the fire. “We are very sorry,” the message said, underneath black-and-white pictures of the girls.