76 Killed in Turkey Fire, Hotel Guests Jump from Windows

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The death toll from a hotel in Turkey reached 76 on Tuesday, January 21, 2025. The fire in Turkey broke out at a ski resort hotel in the Bolu mountains.

Panicked guests jumped out of windows in the middle of the night. "It felt like the end of the world. The fire engulfed the hotel immediately, in just half an hour," said Mevlut Ozer, who witnessed the incident in the Kartalkaya ski resort in northwestern .

The fire started around 3:30 a.m. on the restaurant floor of the 12-story Grand Kartal Hotel, authorities said. Hotel guests tied white sheets to escape from the upper floors.

President Tayyip Erdogan declared Wednesday a day of national mourning after the incident.

"Everyone started jumping in panic. A friend jumped from the 11th floor, may God have mercy on him," said Omer Sakrak, another eyewitness and employee of a neighboring hotel.

"They tried to climb down using sheets. The sheets tore when one of the friends tried to climb down, he fell with his head down," he was quoted as saying by Reuters. "A father was screaming about his one-year-old child: he threw him away or the child would burn," Sakrak said.

Hotel guests told TV broadcasters they fled through smoke-filled corridors and did not hear alarms.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said there were 238 guests staying at the hotel, which is located at the foot of several ski slopes. The fire burned into the afternoon.

"Our grief is indescribable," he said, speaking from the resort and offering condolences. Yerlikaya said the fire had been put out and a search of the hotel had been completed.

Authorities were conducting DNA tests to identify some of the bodies recovered from the fire site. An investigation is underway into the fire, which broke out during the school holidays. Many families from Istanbul and Ankara head to the Bolu mountains for skiing.

Police have detained nine people as part of the investigation, Yerlikaya said. He added that prosecutors would explain the cause of the and those responsible would be brought to justice.

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