A hotel fire in a ski resort in northwestern Turkiye has killed at least 66 people, officials say.
The blaze broke out overnight in the restaurant of the hotel in Kartalkaya in Bolu province, Minister of Interior Ali Yerlikaya said, adding that 51 others were wounded.
“We are in deep pain. We have unfortunately lost 66 lives in the fire that broke out at this hotel,” Yerlikaya told reporters after inspecting the site.
Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu said at least one of the injured was in serious condition.
Turkey’s justice minister said “four people, including the business owner”, were detained in the investigation launched by the chief public prosecutor’s office in Bolu.
Six public prosecutors were assigned to the probe, Yilmaz Tunc also said, adding that a team of experts were looking into the cause of the fire.
Speaking to Turkish news outlet TRT, Bolu Governor Abdulaziz Aydin said the fire began on the fourth floor of the 11-storey hotel at about 3:30am (00:30 GMT). Hours later, firefighters were still working to put it out.
He added that the fourth floor was the restaurant floor.
Two of the victims died after jumping out of the building in a panic, Aydin told the state-run Anadolu news agency. There were 234 guests staying at the hotel, he said.
Fire system ‘failed’
Television images showed the roof and top floors of the building on fire. Witnesses and reports said the hotel’s fire detection system failed to operate.
“My wife smelled the burning. The alarm did not go off,” Atakan Yelkovan, a guest staying on the third floor of the hotel, told the IHA news agency.
“We tried to go upstairs but couldn’t, there were flames. We went downstairs and came here [outside],” he said.
Yelkovan said it took about an hour for the firefighting teams to arrive.
“People on the upper floors were screaming. They hung down sheets … some tried to jump,” he said.
Private television station NTV suggested that the wooden cladding on the exterior of the hotel, in a chalet-style design, may have accelerated the spread of the fire.
The 161-room hotel is on the side of a cliff, hampering efforts to combat the flames, NTV reported. It showed a smoke-blackened lobby, its glass entrance and windows smashed, its wooden reception desk charred and a chandelier crashed to the ground.
Kartalkaya is one of Turkiye’s premier winter tourism destinations, attracting thousands of visitors during the ski season. The resort lies about 295km (183 miles) east of Istanbul.
