Istanbul, Turkey – A fire broke out in a hotel at a ski resort in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday, killing 10 people and injuring 32 others, the interior minister said. Witnesses said desperate guests had tried to escape using ropes, and video showed bed sheets hanging from the windows. Media reports suggested that some people had died after trying to jump to safety.
Several ministers arrived at the scene at the Kartalkaya resort, about 100 miles northwest of the capital Ankara, and officials said the fire was now under control.
The fire broke out at 3:27 a.m. (7:27 p.m. Eastern Monday) in the 12-story Grand Kartal hotel, which has a wooden roof, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X.
Mehmet Emin Gurbuz/Anadolu/Getty
Local media said at least 230 people were staying at the hotel, a peak during the two-week school holidays.
Private broadcaster NTV said the dead included three people who had jumped from the windows of the hotel.
It is expected that the fire started in the restaurant and spread quickly, although it was not immediately clear what caused it.
Part of the hotel backs onto a rock, which made it more difficult for firefighters to deal with the fire.
Video broadcast on Turkish television showed huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky from a snow-capped mountain behind the hotel.
“I heard screaming around midnight, (hotel) residents were shouting for help,” Baris Salgur, who works at a nearby hotel, told NTV television. “They asked for a blanket , saying they will jump… we did what we could, we brought a rope, pillows, we brought a sofa. Some threw themselves when the flames came to them.”
Officials said they fear the death toll could still rise.
Mehmet Emin Gurbuz/Anadolu/Getty
Video showed the hotel's shattered lobby with shards of glass on the floor, the reception desk and wooden furniture inside charred black.
Authorities warned the building could collapse.
A survivor of the flames told local media that no alarms went off at the hotel when the fire started, complaining about the lack of safety measures such as fire escapes or smoke detectors.
“I pray to God for the mercy of our citizens who lost their lives in the fire,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on X.
He said he wished a speedy recovery to those injured in this “terrible accident”, adding that an investigation had been launched.
The Minister of Justice, Yilmaz Tunc, said that six prosecutors were assigned to investigate the fire.
The evacuees were re-accommodated in nearby hotels.
