BY OSABUOHIEN VIVIAN ROSE
At least 76 people have been killed and 51 injured in an early morning blaze at a hotel in the Kartalkaya resort in Bolu province, according to Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.
Many children are also believed to be among the victims. Authorities have identified 52 of the deceased, Yerlikaya said.
As the identities of some of the victims emerged, local schools and businesses started to post death notices for students and educational staff. Some were reported to be fifth graders, aged 10 to 11 years old.
“We are in deep pain. We have unfortunately lost 66 lives in the fire that broke out at this hotel,” Yerlikaya told reporters on Tuesday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared Wednesday a day of mourning. “Today is not a day for politics; it is a day for solidarity, for being one and together,” he said on X, adding that anyone found responsible would be held to account.
Officials said some desperate holiday goers had tried to jump out of windows in order to escape, as flames ravaged the top floors of the facility. Footage of the aftermath showed wreaths of gray smoke swirling around the charred building.
The 12-story hotel was built onto a cliff, complicating efforts to extinguish the flames. Emergency crews arrived at the scene at 4:15 a.m. local time – almost an hour after the fire broke out – at 3:27 a.m. local time, said Yerlikaya.
Turkey’s government launched an investigation into the fire, and at least nine people have been detained, according to Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc and the interior minister.
Eyewitnesses recalled the scent of burning, with guests’ screams filling the upper floors of the hotel. Others said the hotel’s fire detectors did not ring. A number of videos, some shared on social media and others broadcast by Turkish TV stations, showed flames coming out of the top floors of the hotel. Some people were seen using tied bed sheets to try to escape the blaze.
A guest staying on the third floor of the hotel said the alarm failed to sound, the Associated Press reported, citing the IHA news agency.
“My wife smelled the burning… We tried to go upstairs but couldn’t, there were flames,” said Atakan Yelkovan. “People on the upper floors were screaming. They hung down the sheets… Some tried to jump.”
The resort is a popular destination for holiday-makers in the winter, especially during school holidays, which run from January until the first week of February. The timing of the blaze fell in the school holidays, when people from Istanbul and Ankara travel to the Bolu mountains to ski. Authorities evacuated other hotels at the resort as a precautionary measure, and guests were housed in hotels around Bolu.
There were around 234 guests staying at the 12-storey building hotel, Governor Abdulaziz Aydin told the state-run Anadolu Agency. Two of the victims died after jumping out of the building “in a panic,” Aydin said.
At least 30 fire trucks and 28 ambulances were sent to the site, Aydin’s office said. According to Yerlikaya, authorities mobilized 267 emergency personnel to respond to the blaze.
