Istanbul, Türkiye — A fire ravaged a hotel in a ski resort in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday, killing 10 people and injuring 32 others, the Interior Minister announced. Witnesses said desperate guests tried to escape using ropes, and video showed sheets hanging from windows. Media reports suggested some people died after trying to reach safety.
Several ministers arrived at the scene at the resort town of Kartalkaya, about 160 kilometers 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. Monday Eastern Time) in the 12-story, wooden-clad Grand Kartal Hotel, Interior Minister Ali said Yerlikaya on X.
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Local media reported that at least 230 people were staying at the hotel, a peak time during the two-week school holiday.
Private broadcaster NTV said the dead included three people who jumped from hotel windows.
The fire is believed to have started in the restaurant and spread quickly, although the cause was not immediately clear.
Part of the hotel backs onto a cliff, which made it more difficult for firefighters to fight the blaze.
Video broadcast on Turkish television showed huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky with a snow-capped mountain behind the hotel.
“I heard screams around midnight, residents of the hotel were shouting for help,” Baris Salgur, who works at a nearby hotel, told NTV television. “They asked for a blanket saying they were going to jump… we did what we could, we brought rope, pillows, we brought a sofa. Some people jumped as soon as the flames approached them.
Officials said they feared the death toll would continue to rise.
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The video showed the destroyed hotel lobby with shards of glass on the floor, the reception desk and wooden furniture inside blackened.
Authorities have warned that the building could collapse.
A survivor who managed to escape the flames told local media that no alarms had sounded at the hotel when the fire broke out, complaining of a lack of safety measures such as stairs. emergency or smoke detectors.
“I pray to God to have mercy on our citizens who lost their lives in the fire,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on X.
He said he wished a speedy recovery to the injured affected by “this tragic accident”, specifying that an investigation had been opened.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said six prosecutors had been appointed to investigate the fire.
The evacuees were relocated to nearby hotels.