A fire at a ski resort hotel in Turkey’s Bolu Mountains killed at least 76 people and injured 51 others on Tuesday. Panicked guests had to jump out of windows in the middle of the night.
“It was like an apocalypse. The flames engulfed the hotel immediately, in about half an hour,” said Mevlüt Özer, who observed the incident at the Kartalkaya ski resort in the Koroglu Mountains of Bolu province, about 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 building with the wooden facade. White sheets tied together hung from an upstairs window where people tried to escape.
“People all started jumping up in panic. A man 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 jumped out of windows and tried to climb out of bed sheets, a witness said, as flames broke out at a ski resort hotel in Turkey on Tuesday night. The fire in the Kartalkaya ski resort in northwestern Bolu province killed at least 76 people and injured dozens more.
“They tried to climb down using bedsheets. The bedsheets tore when a man tried… and unfortunately he fell on his head,” he told Reuters. “A father shouted over his one-year-old child: ‘I will throw my child or it will burn.'”
At least two of the victims died when they jumped from the building in panic, Governor Abdulaziz Aydin previously told state-run Anadolu Agency. Those killed included Nedim Turkmen, a columnist for the Sozcu newspaper, his wife and two children, the newspaper said.
The death toll was updated from 66 to 76 on Tuesday.
Witnesses report that they did not hear any alarms
Hotel guests told television stations they fled through smoke-filled corridors and didn’t hear any alarms.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said there were 238 guests at the hotel, located at the foot of several ski slopes, where smoke continued until the afternoon.
“We are in a lot of pain,” Yerlikaya told reporters after inspecting the site.
“As the rear of the hotel is on a slope, firefighting operations could only be carried out from the front and side facades,” he said, adding that crews began fighting the fire on the mountaintop about 45 minutes after the initial call .
A video provided by Reuters shows the massive emergency response after a fire broke out at a hotel in a ski resort in Turkey, leaving dozens dead and many more injured.
Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu said at least one of the injured was in serious condition, while 17 other people were being treated and released.
Global Affairs Canada said it was not aware of any Canadian citizens being affected by the fire.
4 people arrested while investigation is ongoing
An investigation is underway into the fire, which coincided with the school holidays when many families from nearby Istanbul and Ankara went skiing in the Bolu Mountains.
The authorities arrested four people as part of the investigation, including the owner of the hotel, said Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc in an article on X.
Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told reporters that the hotel underwent inspections in 2021 and 2024 and that the fire department reported “no negative situation regarding fire competency.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a national day of mourning for Wednesday. All flags at government buildings and Turkish missions abroad would be lowered to half, he said.
“All necessary steps will be taken to clarify all aspects of the incident and hold those responsible accountable,” Erdogan said in an earlier address in Ankara.
