Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared Wednesday a day of national mourning after 76 people were killed in a fire which broke out in a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in the early hours of Tuesday.
Erdogan said all flags at government buildings and Turkish embassies abroad would fly at half-staff on Wednesday.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, speaking outside the hotel, said: “Our hearts are broken. We are in mourning. But you should know that whoever is responsible for causing this pain will not escape justice.”
Hotel Was Full
The hotel was full, with 238 registered guests, as schools had just broken up for the semester break.The fire was first reported at 3:27 a.m. but firefighters did not arrive at the scene until 45 minutes later.
The governor of Bolu province, Abdulaziz Aydin, told the state-run Anadolu Agency, at least two of the victims jumped to their deaths as they tried to escape the flames.
Atakan Yelkovan, a hotel guest who was staying on the third floor, told the Ihlas new agency (IHA): “People on the upper floors were screaming. They hung down sheets ... some tried to jump.”
Interviewed outside the hotel, he said: “My wife smelled the burning. The alarm did not go off. We tried to go upstairs but couldn’t, there were flames. We went downstairs and came here.”
Yerlikaya said 45 of the 76 people killed had so far been identified.
He said: “Forty-five bodies were delivered to their families. We could not [immediately] identify the others.”
The emergency response teams are conducting a final sweep of the building on Wednesday, looking for any undiscovered victims.
Yerlikaya said the fact the 161-room hotel was on is a cliff hampered efforts to tackle the blaze.
He said, “Because the rear side is on a slope, intervention could only be made from the front and sides.”
The club—whose soccer team has won the national championships a record 28 times and is managed by José Mourinho—wrote, “We express our condolences to the whole family, relatives and our community, especially her father who is our dear [club] congressman Mehmet Apak.”
Investigation Under Way
The government has appointed six prosecutors to lead an investigation into the fire, which is believed to have broken out in the hotel’s restaurant.Yerlikaya said nine people had been detained as part of the investigation, although it is unclear at this point if there was started deliberately, or was the result of an electrical fault.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc has said the hotel’s owner was among those detained for questioning.
Ersoy said the hotel underwent an inspection last year and, “no negative situation regarding fire competence.”
The Kartalkaya fire is one of the worst hotel blazes in history.
