Sixty-six people have been reported dead and over 32 others left injured in a fire that erupted at a popular ski resort hotel in the Bolu province in Northwestern Turkey.
This incident happened on January 21, 2025, in the wee hours of the morning in Bolu Province in Northern Turkey at the Grand Kartalkaya Ski Resort, which resulted in many fatalities and others severely injured.
The Kartalkaya resort, which lies about 40 kilometers from the Bolu city, is one of Turkey’s premier winter tourism destinations, attracting thousands of visitors during the ski season.
According to the Bolu Governor Abdulaziz Aydin, the fire started on the fourth floor in the restaurant of the 12-storey Grand Kartal hotel.
Aydin said that the 12-storey hotel was hosting about 234 guests at the time the blaze erupted, and most of them were asleep at that time.
’’The hotel is seated on a cliff, and this presented significant challenges for firefighters attempting to control the flames,’’ Aydin stated.
Since then, emergency crews, including 30 fire trucks and 28 ambulances, responded from Bolu and neighboring provinces, which equates to two hundred and sixty-seven personnel from various public institutions and organizations who have responded to the fire, and the response is ongoing.
The police are yet to establish the cause of the fire as investigations are still underway.
Speaking to the Turkish news outlet TRT Ali Yerlikaya, the Minister of Interior revealed that the hotel was engulfed in smoke, making it difficult for guests to locate the fire escape, which forced the holidaygoers to desperately jump out of windows in order to escape, as flames licked the top floors of the facility.
Yerlikaya said that the footage of the aftermath showed wreaths of gray smoke swirling around the charred building; the hotel’s fire detection system failed to operate.
’’Two of the victims died after jumping out of the building in a panic and were Turkish nationals; however, the government has appointed six prosecutors to lead an investigation into the fire,’’ Yerlikaya revealed.
On the same day, a natural gas explosion at a hotel at another ski resort in central Turkey also injured four people. The explosion took place at the Yıldız Mountain Winter Sports Center in Sivas province.
Two alpine skiers and their instructor were injured while another instructor received second-degree burns in the face and body.
These incidents highlight ongoing concerns regarding fire safety regulations in hotels, particularly in high-risk areas such as ski resorts.
