A devastating fire swept through the 12-story Grand Kartal Hotel in the Turkish ski resort of Bolu, killing 66 people and injuring at least 51 others, according to officials ¹. The blaze broke out around 3:27 am local time in the hotel’s restaurant section on the fourth floor and quickly spread to the upper floors.
As guests desperately tried to escape, some jumped from the hotel’s windows, with at least two reported fatalities from these attempts. Others used bed sheets to try and climb down from the upper floors, with footage showing these makeshift ropes hanging from the windows ¹.
Rescue efforts were hindered by the hotel’s remote location and freezing weather conditions, which delayed the arrival of fire engines by over an hour. Emergency services deployed 267 personnel to respond to the fire, and a neighboring hotel was evacuated as a precaution ¹.
The cause of the fire remains unclear, with prosecutors allocated to investigate the blaze, according to Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc. The hotel was operating at high occupancy during the start of two-week school holidays, with many guests from Istanbul and Ankara
