Istanbul, Türkiye — A fire ravaged a hotel in a ski resort in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday, killing at least 76 people and injuring at least 51 others, the interior minister said. Witnesses said desperate guests tried to escape using ropes, and video showed sheets hanging from windows. Authorities suggested that at least two people died after trying to jump from the building to safety, and private broadcaster NTV reported that three people died this way.
At least one of the people was seriously injured, Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu said, while 17 others were treated for less serious injuries. Survivors who evacuated the building were relocated to nearby hotels.
“Our pain is great,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters at the resort town of Kartalkaya, about 160 km northwest of the capital Ankara. “Sixty-six citizens lost their lives and 51 others were injured.”
Other cabinet members also visited the disaster site and said the fire had been brought under control. The fire broke out at 3:27 a.m. (7:27 p.m. Monday Eastern Time) in the 12-story, wood-clad Grand Kartal Hotel, Yerlikaya said earlier on X.
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Yerlikaya said 238 people were registered guests at the hotel when the fire broke out amid a tourism peak for the resort due to a two-week school vacation.
Turkish authorities arrested four people, including the hotel owner, “as part of an investigation by six prosecutors,” Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said in a social media post . The hotel owner was among those arrested for questioning, according to the justice minister. A panel of five people with expertise relevant to the case will also contribute to the investigation, he said.
The fire is believed to have started in the restaurant and spread quickly, although the cause was not immediately clear. Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told reporters that the hotel had undergone inspections in 2021 and 2024, saying “no negative situations regarding fire competence” had been encountered. recorded by firefighters, the Associated Press reported.
Some witnesses and reports suggest that the hotel’s fire detection system was not working. Atakan Yelkovan, a guest staying on the third floor, told AP that it took firefighters about an hour to arrive at the scene. Part of the hotel backs onto a cliff, which made it more difficult for firefighters to fight the blaze.
Video broadcast on Turkish television showed huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky with a snow-capped mountain behind the hotel.
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“I heard screams around midnight, residents of the hotel were shouting for help,” Baris Salgur, who works at a nearby hotel, told NTV television. “They asked for a blanket, saying they were going to jump. We did what we could, we brought rope, pillows, a sofa. Some people threw themselves when the flames approached them .”
Officials said they feared the death toll would continue to rise.
The video showed the destroyed hotel lobby with shards of glass on the floor, the reception desk and wooden furniture inside blackened.
Authorities have warned that the building could collapse.
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A survivor who managed to escape the flames told local media that no alarms had sounded at the hotel when the fire broke out, complaining of a lack of safety measures such as stairs. emergency or smoke detectors.
“I pray to God to have mercy on our citizens who lost their lives in the fire,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on X.
He said he wished a speedy recovery to the injured affected by “this tragic accident”, specifying that an investigation had been opened. Erdogan also declared a day of national mourning on Wednesday in response to the fire, ordering that all flags at government buildings and Turkish diplomatic missions abroad be flown at half-mast.
contributed to this report.
