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Turkish authorities are facing mounting questions over safety measures at a hotel in a popular ski resort that was ravaged by a fire, leaving 76 people dead and injuring more than 50 others.
Survivors reported that they did not hear alarms when the fire began in the early hours of Tuesday morning in the Bolu mountains resort of Kartalkaya. Harrowing accounts have emerged of people navigating smoke-filled corridors in complete darkness and jumping out of windows.
“No fire alarm went off … and there was no fire escape,” Atakan Yelkovan, one of the guests, told the IHA news agency. Speaking to Turkish media outlets, many survivors told the same story.
Forensic medicine units continued to identify victims on Wednesday as flags flew at half-mast across the country on a national day of mourning.
“We are in deep pain,” Turkey’s interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, told reporters after inspecting the site at the Grand Kartal hotel in Kartalkaya, about 190 miles (300km) east of Istanbul. “But you should know that whoever is responsible for causing this pain will not escape justice.”
Authorities said 11 people had been detained as part of the investigation, including a deputy mayor of Bolu province and the owner and manager of the hotel. The hotel pledged full cooperation with the investigation in a statement on Wednesday. “We are cooperating with authorities to shed light on all aspects of this incident,” it said. “We are deeply saddened by the losses and want you to know that we share this pain with all our hearts.”
Yerlikaya said the fire was reported at about 3.27am (0027 GMT) and firefighters were at the scene about 45 minutes later. Several survivors and witnesses reported smelling smoke and seeing flames as early as 2.30am.
Cetin, an employee at an adjacent hotel, told the Associated Press: “There was no one around. They were calling for firefighters. They were breaking the windows. Some could no longer stand the smoke and flames, and they jumped.”
Necmi Kepçetutan, a ski instructor employed at the hotel, told the NTV network that “people were screaming to be rescued”. An employee at a nearby hotel described seeing a child dangling from a window screaming for help. “I was profoundly disturbed. I still cannot forget the image,” he said.
Turkey’s tourism minister, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, who was among those who travelled to the scene on Tuesday, said the hotel had in place the necessary fire precautions, with authorities inspecting it in 2021 and 2024 and “no issues related to fire safety … flagged by the fire department”.
It was not clear what sparked the fire but unconfirmed press reports said it began in a restaurant. Officials and witnesses have said rescue efforts were hampered by the fact part of the 161-room hotel is on the side of a cliff.
An estimated 238 guests were staying at the hotel on Monday night, the start of a two-week winter break for schools when accommodation in the region is filled to capacity. A quarter of the guests were children.
Local media reported that entire families had died in the fire. Among those being buried on Wednesday were a husband and wife and their three children, including twin boys.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, travelled to Bolu from the capital, Ankara, to attend the funeral of eight members of the Gültekin family, who were related to an official in his ruling party. “Our hearts are broken,” Erdoğan said during the funeral of Zehra Sena Gültekin, her husband, their four children and another relative. “May God grant us patience.”
