Damning news emerged Wednesday about a devastating fire that killed at least 79 people at a hotel in Turkey on Tuesday, January 21.
Turkey began burying its dead Wednesday, a day after a fire killed at least 79 people overnight at a luxury hotel in a central mountain resort, sparking widespread accusations of negligence. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan showed emotion at the funeral of eight family members of a former member of parliament from his AKP party in the provincial capital Bolu.
The head of state was photographed drying his eyes with a white handkerchief, his face marked, head towards the ground. Following DNA analysis, the Bolu prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday evening that 79 people had died in the fire, revising upwards a previous death toll of 76.
While around twenty people remain hospitalized in Bolu, 35 km from Kartalkaya, the Turkish media continue to list the negligence that they believe led to this very high death toll, including the absence of a fire alarm. “There is no excuse for such deaths in 2025“, judged Özgür Özel, the leader of the CHP, the main Turkish opposition party, late Tuesday, in front of the imposing hotel with its blackened facade where searches were taking place Wednesday to find possible victims, in the middle of a day of mourning national.
During this school holiday period in Turkey, entire families who were staying in this luxury establishment, located two hours from Ankara and less than four from Istanbul, were decimated.
Read also: 76 dead, people jumping out of windows… the terrible images of the fire that ravages a hotel in a ski resort in Turkey
“Flames everywhere”
“When I arrived, there were flames everywhere, we could hear screams […] I saw “A person jumped out of a window”, Cevdet Can, head of a ski school in the resort, told AFP, saying he was very “affected” by the death of a large number of children. “I lost five of my students”, a ski instructor, Necmi Kepcetutan, himself a survivor of the flames, told AFP.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000Other survivors denounced on Tuesday the absence of a fire alarm and fire doors in the Grand Kartal hotel. Eleven people, including a deputy mayor of Bolu, the city's fire chief, the owner of the Grand Kartal, its general manager and its chief electrician, were arrested as part of the investigation launched by the Justice Ministry, which has assigned six prosecutors to it.
Bolu Kartalkaya Kayak Merkezi’ndeki Grand Kartal Otel’de çıkan yangında ölü sayısı 20’ye yükseldi. 31 yaralı var ve ölü sayısının daha da artabileceği söyleniyor.
Yarıyıl tatili nedeniyle yüzde 90 dolu olan otelde 237 kişi bulunuyordu. Bolu’daki yangında ciddi ihmaller olduğu… pic.twitter.com/4LUtudqFdf— Alp Kılınç (@alpklnctr) January 21, 2025
The hotel management offered its condolences and expressed “its sorrow”, assuring“cooperate with the authorities to shed full light on this accident”. This luxury establishment (several hundred euros per night) was practically full during these winter school holidays in Turkey, with 238 registered guests.
“Negligence”
According to the Ministry of Tourism, the hotel had been “checked” by the fire brigade in 2021 and 2024, but several Turkish media outlets claimed on Wednesday that the last inspection dates back to 2007. The ministry and the opposition municipality of Bolu are passing the buck for certifications of compliance with safety standards.
The state-run Anadolu Agency on Wednesday published a document dated January 2, issued by the Bolu municipality, certifying the conformity of a new 70m2 “café-restaurant” set up on the 4th floor of the hotel, where the fire allegedly started according to the Turkish press. Authorities said the fire broke out shortly before 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Tuesday, and that firefighters arrived on the scene in less than 45 minutes. But witnesses and survivors say the fire started earlier.
“It was not the fire but the negligence that caused the death” of the holidaymakers, writes the pro-government daily Hürriyet. The Minister of Tourism denied the absence of fire escapes, which some survivors had mentioned, saying that the hotel had two.
The twelve-story building, with panoramic views of the mountains, is located near a steep slope, which complicated the intervention of the firefighters. According to the Turkish press, the hotel's wooden cladding also facilitated the spread of the flames to the rest of the building.