By Ben Hubbard and Safak Timur
A fire erupted in a 12-story hotel at a Turkish ski resort on Tuesday, resulting in at least 76 fatalities and 51 injuries, according to officials, transforming a picturesque getaway into a smoke-filled horror.
The tragedy occurred during Turkey’s winter vacation, a time when children are free from school and many families take holidays, including trips to ski resorts. It remains uncertain how many children are among the deceased, though several were mentioned by friends.
The cause of the blaze remains unknown.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc announced on social media that six prosecutors have been designated to investigate the incident. Nine individuals, including the owner of the hotel, have been taken into custody.
The fire ignited before sunrise in the Grand Kartal Hotel located in Kartalkaya, approximately 180 miles east of Istanbul, with bright flames visible from the windows and thick smoke billowing from the roof.
Around 230 guests were thought to be present in the hotel at the time, along with several staff members. Some survivors recounted terrifying escapes, compounded by the absence of fire alarms or clear escape routes.
“The smoke was so thick that we could hardly breathe,” Eylem Senturk, who was on vacation with her family, shared with the state-run Anadolu news agency.
She and her daughter hurried to the exit, but the smoke was too overwhelming for her husband, who leaped from a window onto a lower rooftop and then onto a car to reach safety.
Senturk mentioned that she didn’t hear any fire alarm, realizing the building was ablaze when she heard screams in the hallway and opened the door to find smoke. She stated she did not notice any fire escape routes.
“If there had been a fire alarm, we could have responded more quickly,” she said. “The absence of a fire alarm and escape routes trapped individuals.”
Another survivor, Muzaffer Cig, also informed Anadolu that there was no fire escape available. “Since there was no escape route, we dashed down the staircase,” he said.
Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, speaking to journalists at the scene, stated that the hotel was inspected in 2021 and 2024 and had met the necessary fire safety standards. He also claimed the building had two fire exits.
However, no external escape routes were visible in aerial footage of the structure broadcast on Turkish television following the fire.
Officials reported that 52 of the victims have been identified, with 14 sent to a forensic unit for DNA testing, while the bodies of 45 were returned to their families.
Turkey has declared a national day of mourning.
The numerous casualties in a hotel surrounded by snow-covered mountains, where families expected to enjoy themselves, have led to demands for accountability, though similar demands after past tragedies have often fallen on deaf ears.
Following the disastrous earthquakes that claimed over 50,000 lives in southern Turkey earlier in 2023, survivors and engineers accused builders and governmental inspectors of neglecting building codes, contributing to the high death toll. Nearly two years later, however, few individuals have been held responsible.
The fire on Tuesday began around 3:30 a.m., while most guests were asleep, as per news reports. In their attempt to escape, some guests tied bedsheets together to make ropes for descending to a lower floor, as seen in video footage.
Scores of firefighters and rescue teams hurried to the scene from nearby towns.
“When I exited my room, I noticed flames flickering on the fourth floor, where the restaurant was located,” said Necmi Kepcetutan, a ski instructor who also worked at the hotel, during an interview with NTV. “Then the fire began to engulf the hotel. We aided about a dozen or more guests in evacuating, as we know the hotel layout very well.”
“People were crying out for help,” he recounted.
Two individuals—a hotel guest and an employee—lost their lives after jumping from the building, as reported by the regional governor, Abdulaziz Aydin, to Anadolu.
The fire coincided with an explosion at another Turkish ski resort in the central province of Sivas, which injured four individuals, according to a statement from the governor’s office.
The cause of the explosion remains undetermined. Two skiers and a trainer suffered minor injuries, while another trainer sustained second-degree burns on his hands and face, the statement detailed.
