After powerful earthquakes killed more than 50,000 people in southern Turkey in early 2023, survivors and engineers accused contractors and government inspectors of failing to ensure compliance with building codes, increasing the death toll. Nearly two years later, however, few people have been held accountable.
The fire on Tuesday started at around 3:30 a.m., when most hotel occupants were asleep, according to news reports. In an effort to evacuate, some strung bedsheets together to make a rope that they used to descend to a lower floor, video footage showed.
Dozens of rescuers and fire trucks rushed to the site from surrounding towns.
“When I left my room, I saw the flames at the fourth floor, the floor of the restaurant,” Necmi Kepcetutan, a ski instructor who also worked at the hotel, told the NTV network. “Then it started to swarm the hotel. We helped around a dozen or more people to evacuate, since we know the hotel very well.”
