A devastating fire at a ski resort hotel in Turkey’s Bolu mountains claimed the lives of 66 people on Tuesday, as guests were forced to leap from windows in a desperate attempt to escape the flames.
The fire, which broke out around 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) on the restaurant floor of the 12-storey Grand Kartal Hotel, also left 51 others injured, according to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.
The blaze rapidly spread through the hotel, causing panic among the 238 guests staying at the Grand Kartal, a popular spot near several ski slopes.
Witnesses reported seeing bed sheets tied together and hanging from upper-floor windows as people scrambled to flee.
Some guests, including two women on the top floor, were seen urging those below to prepare pillows before jumping to safety.
One hotel guest told Ekol TV that his family woke up to smoke-filled corridors and had no choice but to jump from a lower-floor window into the snow below.
Firefighters arrived around 45 minutes after the first emergency call, but their efforts were hindered by the hotel’s location on a slope, which limited access to certain areas of the building.
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Photo: @theinformant on X
While the fire has now been extinguished, cooling efforts continued into the afternoon.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the fire, which coincided with school holidays when many families from Istanbul and Ankara were in the area for skiing.
The disaster has shaken the nation, with Yerlikaya expressing his condolences and calling the loss “impossible to describe.”
