Officials expressed their deep “pain” at the disaster, stating that 66 people had died in a fire that consumed a hotel at a well-known ski resort in northwest Turkiye on Tuesday.
Video showed bedsheets dangling from the windows, witnesses reported that desperate visitors had attempted to flee using ropes, and media accounts indicated that some people had perished after attempting to jump to safety.
Speaking to reporters at the Kartalkaya resort, which is about 170 kilometers northwest of the capital Ankara, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, “Our pain is great.”
The 12-story Grand Kartal hotel, which has wooden cladding, was the scene of the fire around 3:27 a.m. (00:27 GMT), according to Yerlikaya.
According to the minister, there were about 238 guests registered at the hotel. During a two-week school break, it was a busy time.
According to Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc on X, Turkish officials have arrested four individuals, including the resort hotel’s owner.
Six prosecutors were assigned to look into the fire, the ministry had previously stated.
Three individuals who had leaped from the hotel’s windows were among the deceased, according to private station NTV.
Although the source of the fire was not immediately apparent, it is thought to have begun in the restaurant and spread swiftly.
Firefighters find it more difficult to combat the fire because part of the building backs onto a cliff.
“I heard screaming.”
“Our pain is great, our heartache is great,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a brief speech to the Ankara assembly of his ruling AKP party.
The cause of the fire has been the subject of judicial and administrative inquiries, he said.
He pledged to take all necessary actions to hold those accountable and to bring light to all facets of the situation.
With a snow-capped peak behind the hotel, television images showed massive smoke plumes rising into the sky.
They said they would jump and asked for a blanket. We brought a sofa, cushions, and rope, and we did what we could. When the flames got close, some people threw themselves.
“No safety.”
The hotel’s ruined lobby was captured on camera, with glass fragments scattered across the floor, the reception counter, and the wooden furnishings inside all scorched black.
The building might fall, according to authorities.
A survivor who escaped the fire informed local media that there were no alarms at the hotel when the fire began and bemoaned the absence of smoke detectors and fire stairs, among other safety precautions.
The hotel had two fire escapes, according to Tourism Minister Nuri Ersoy.
The fire department has granted the hotel a fire safety certificate. The fire department must conduct routine inspections,” he stated.
Bed linens were seen hanging from the hotel’s windows in the video, suggesting that some guests had attempted to use them as a means of escape from the fire.
Hotels in the area took up the evacuees.
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