Grand Kartal Hotel: More than 60 dead and dozens injured after fire breaks out in hotel at popular Turkey ski resort - with 2 victims jumping from building

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A fire at a ski resort hotel in Turkey has killed at least 66 people and dozens more have been admitted to hospital.

A fire engulfed a hotel at a ski resort in northwestern Turkey today (Tuesday 21 January) killing at least 66 people and injuring 32 others, the interior minister said. Witnesses said desperate guests had tried to escape using ropes, and video showed bedsheets hanging from the windows.

Media reports suggested some people had died after trying to jump to safety. The fire broke out at around 3.30am in the restaurant of the 12-storey Grand Kartal hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province, officials and reports said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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"Our pain is great," Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters at the Kartalkaya resort, about 100 miles northwest of the capital Ankara. "Sixty-six citizens lost their lives and 51 others wounded."

Two of the victims died after jumping from the building in a panic, governor Abdulaziz Aydin told the state-run Anadolu Agency. Private NTV television said some people tried to climb down from their rooms using sheets and blankets. Video aired on Turkish television showed huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky with a snowcapped mountain behind the hotel.

There were 234 guests staying at the hotel, Mr Aydin said. Necmi Kepcetutan, a ski instructor at the hotel, said he was asleep when the fire erupted and he rushed out of the building. He told NTV television that he then helped some 20 guests out of the hotel.

BOLU, TURKIYE- JANUARY 21: The death toll rose to 66 in a fire that broke out in a hotel in Bolu Kartalkaya Ski Center on January 21, 2025 in Bolu, Turkiye. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that 51 people were injured, fire cooling work continues. (Photo by Mert Gokhan Koc/ dia images via Getty Images)BOLU, TURKIYE- JANUARY 21: The death toll rose to 66 in a fire that broke out in a hotel in Bolu Kartalkaya Ski Center on January 21, 2025 in Bolu, Turkiye. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that 51 people were injured, fire cooling work continues. (Photo by Mert Gokhan Koc/ dia images via Getty Images)
BOLU, TURKIYE- JANUARY 21: The death toll rose to 66 in a fire that broke out in a hotel in Bolu Kartalkaya Ski Center on January 21, 2025 in Bolu, Turkiye. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that 51 people were injured, fire cooling work continues. (Photo by Mert Gokhan Koc/ dia images via Getty Images) | dia images via Getty Images

He said the hotel was engulfed in smoke, making it difficult for guests to locate the fire escape. “I cannot reach some of my students. I hope they are OK,” the ski instructor told the station.

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Television images showed the roof and top floors of the hotel on fire. The government appointed six prosecutors to lead an investigation into the fire. NTV television suggested that the wooden cladding on the exterior of the hotel, in a chalet-style design, may have accelerated the spread of the fire.

Kartalkaya is a popular ski resort in the Koroglu mountains, some 185 miles east of Istanbul. The fire occurred during school holidays when hotels in the region are packed.

Mr Aydin’s office said 30 fire engines and 28 ambulances were sent to the site. Other hotels at the resort were evacuated as a precaution and guests were placed in hotels around Bolu.

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