A fire in a hotel in a Turkish ski resort that killed 76 was ‘like an apocalypse’, says a witness
A fire at a ski resort hotel in Turkey’s Bolu mountains killed at least 76 people and injured 51 on Tuesday, prompting panicked guests to jump out of windows in the middle of the night.
“It was like an apocalypse. Flames engulfed the hotel immediately, in about half an hour,” said Mevlut Ozer, who witnessed the incident at the Kartalkaya ski resort in the Koroglu mountains of Bolu province, some 300 kilometers east of Istanbul.
The fire broke out around 3:30 a.m. local time on the restaurant floor of the 12-story Grand Kartal Hotel, authorities said.
Several fire engines and ambulances surrounded the charred wood-fronted building, with white sheets tied together and hanging from one upper-floor window where people tried to escape.
“People all started jumping out of panic. The guy jumped from the 11th floor – may God have mercy on him,” said Omer Sakrak, another witness and an employee of a neighboring hotel.
Panicked people were jumping out of windows and trying to get off their sheets, a witness said, as fire ripped through a hotel at a ski resort in Turkey overnight on Tuesday. A fire at the Kartalkaya ski resort in the northwestern province of Bol has killed at least 76 people and injured dozens.
“They tried to get down using the sheets. The sheets tore as one guy was trying… and unfortunately he fell on his head,” he told Reuters. “One father yelled at his one-year-old child, ‘I’m going to drop my child or he’s going to burn.'”
At least two victims died when they jumped from the building in panic, Governor Abdulaziz Aydin told the state-run Anadolu Agency earlier. Among those killed were Nedim Turkmen, a columnist for the Sozcu newspaper, his wife and two children, the newspaper reported.
The death toll was updated from 66 to 76 on Tuesday.
Witnesses say they did not hear any alarms
Hotel guests told television stations that they fled through smoke-filled hallways and heard no alarm.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said there were 238 guests at the hotel, which is located at the foot of several ski slopes and was smoldering by afternoon.
“We are in deep pain,” Yerlikaya told reporters after inspecting the site.
“Since the back of the hotel is on a slope, firefighting could only be done from the front and side facades,” he said, adding that crews began battling the flames at the top of the mountain about 45 minutes after the first call.
Video provided by Reuters shows the massive emergency response after a fire ripped through a hotel in a ski area in Turkey, leaving dozens dead and many more injured.
Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu said that at least one of the injured was in serious condition, while 17 other people were treated and released.
Global Affairs Canada said it had no knowledge of the fire affecting Canadian citizens.
4 people were detained, the investigation is ongoing
An investigation is underway into the fire, which coincided with the school holidays, when many families from nearby Istanbul and Ankara go to the Bolu mountains for skiing.
Authorities arrested four people, including the hotel owner, as part of the investigation, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said in a post on X.
Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told reporters that the hotel had undergone inspections in 2021 and 2024 and that the fire service had not reported “any negative situation regarding fire-fighting capability”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a day of national mourning to be observed on Wednesday. All flags on government buildings and Turkish diplomatic missions abroad will be flown at half-mast, he said.
“All necessary steps will be taken to shed light on all aspects of the incident and hold those responsible accountable,” Erdogan said in an earlier address in Ankara.
