Turkish ski resort fire kills 66, guests forced to jump from windows

Eyewitnesses say the flames engulfed the hotel in half an hour, as people tried to climb down using bedsheets; Hotel guests said they fled through smoke-filled corridors and heard no alarms

A fire at a ski resort hotel in Turkey's Bolu mountains killed 66 people and injured 51 others on Tuesday, forcing panicked guests to jump out of windows in the middle of the night.
"It was like the apocalypse. The flames engulfed the hotel immediately, like in half an hour," said Mevlut Ozer, who witnessed the incident at the Kartalkaya ski resort in northwest Turkey.
A ski resort burning in Turkey
(Video: Reuters)
The fire began around 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) on the restaurant floor of the 12-story Grand Kartal Hotel, authorities said.
Several fire engines and ambulances later surrounded the charred, wood-fronted building, with white bed sheets tied together and dangling from at least three upper-floor windows where people tried to flee.
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אתר סקי קרטלקאיה במחוז בולו
אתר סקי קרטלקאיה במחוז בולו
The burning ski resort in Turkey
(Photo: Reuters)
"People all started to jump with panic. One friend jumped from the 11th floor - may God have mercy on him," said Omer Sakrak, another witness and employee of a neighboring hotel.
"They tried to climb down using bedsheets. The bedsheets ripped as one friend tried ... and he unfortunately fell on his head," he told Reuters. "One father was yelling about his one-year-old child: 'I will throw my child or he will burn'."
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Hotel guests told TV broadcasters they fled through smoke-filled corridors and heard no alarms.
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אתר סקי קרטלקאיה במחוז בולו
אתר סקי קרטלקאיה במחוז בולו
(Photo: Reuters/ Mert Ozkan)
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said there were 238 guests at the hotel situated at the base of several ski slopes and which smoldered until the afternoon.
"I would like to share this pain, which is impossible to describe," he said at the resort, offering condolences and announcing that the fire had been extinguished.
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אתר סקי קרטלקאיה במחוז בולו
אתר סקי קרטלקאיה במחוז בולו
(Photo: AFP)
"Since the back of the hotel is on a slope, fire extinguishing efforts could only be carried out from the front and side facades," he said, adding crews began battling the mountaintop blaze about 45 minutes after the first call.
An investigation was underway into the fire, which coincided with school holidays when many families from nearby Istanbul and Ankara headed to the Bolu mountains to ski.
Authorities detained four people, including the owner of the hotel, as part of the investigation, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said in a post on X.
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