At Least 76 Dead in Turkish Ski Resort Hotel Blaze: Witnesses Recall Chaos and Panic

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At least 76 people killed and 51 others injured in a fire at the resort in Türkiye’s Bolu mountains.
Guests panicked, with some jumping out of windows or off the roof to escape the blaze.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the fire, which coincided with the peak skiing season.

A fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel in Türkiye’s Bolu mountains killed 76 people and forced panicked guests to jump out of windows in the middle of the night.

Türkiye’s interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said at least 52 of the victims had been identified so far with forensic experts working to determine the identities of the others.

He said some 51 people were also injured.

‘Some tried to jump’

The fire started around 3.30am local time on the restaurant floor of the 12-storey Grand Kartal Hotel, authorities said.

“People on the upper floors were screaming. They threw bedsheets out of the windows, some tried to jump,” Atakan Yelkovan, who escaped from the third floor with his wife, told IHA news agency.

A firefighter walking through a charred room in the ski resort.

Fire crews worked through the night to extinguish the blaze. Source: Getty / dia images

A very shaken hotel employee, who did not give his name, said he saw guests at their windows screaming for help.

“I saw a father with his baby in his arms asking for pillows so he could throw down his son. Luckily he waited for the emergency services who saved them,” he told IHA.

“But on the top floor, two women threw themselves out of the window and died,” he said, explaining that students were staying on the top floor.

Several fire engines and ambulances surrounded the charred, wood-fronted building, with white bed sheets tied together and dangling from one upper-floor window where people tried to flee.

‘Impossible to describe’

Another guest told Ekol TV that he and his family woke up to the fire but did not hear alarms, then entered smoke-filled corridors and eventually jumped from a lower-floor window onto snow below.

Yerlikaya said there were 238 guests at the hotel lying at the base of several ski slopes. It was still smouldering in the afternoon.

“I would like to share this pain, which is impossible to describe,” he said in offering condolences.

“The fire has now been extinguished. Cooling efforts are ongoing. Since the back of the hotel is on a slope, fire extinguishing efforts could only be carried out from the front and side facades.”

He added that fire crews began battling the blaze about 45 minutes after the first call.

An investigation was underway into the fire, which coincided with school holidays when many families from nearby Istanbul and Ankara head to the Bolu mountains to ski.