Turkey observes national mourning on Wednesday after the fire at a mountain hotel which claimed the lives of at least 76 people in the ski resort of Kartalkaya, in the center of the country.
The day after the tragedy, twenty patients remained hospitalized in Bolu, the provincial capital located 35 km from the station, including one in serious condition.
The hospital received a total of thirty patients, ten of whom were discharged, according to the provincial health directorate.
Searches to find possible victims in the hotel with its blackened facade resumed on Wednesday, according to the Turkish press.
During this school holiday period in Turkey, entire families who were staying in this luxury establishment, located two hours from Ankara and less than four from Istanbul, were decimated.
The first funerals are thus announced for a neurologist and his wife, a professor, who died with their three children, including twins.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who declared this day of national mourning, is announced Wednesday in Bolu for the funeral of seven members of the same family close to a local official of his party, the AKP.
Nine people, including the manager of the Grand Kartal hotel, were arrested Tuesday as part of the investigation launched by the Ministry of Justice, which assigned six prosecutors to it.
– “Negligence” –
-Survivors and the Turkish press denounce “negligence” in the alarm and fire protection systems.
The management of the Grand Kartal hotel presented its condolences and expressed “its sorrow” in a press release published overnight, assuring “to cooperate with the authorities to shed light on this accident”.
This luxury establishment (several hundred euros per night) was practically full during these winter school holidays in Türkiye, with 238 registered guests.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, the hotel had been “verified” by the firefighters in 2021 and 2024. But the ministry and municipality pass the responsibility for certifications of compliance with safety standards to each other.
“It was not the fire but the negligence that caused the death” of the vacationers, wrote the major pro-government daily Hürriyet on Wednesday.
The twelve-story building, with panoramic views of the mountains, is located near a steep slope, which complicated the intervention of firefighters.
The cause of the incident has not been determined.
According to initial information, the fire started in the middle of the night in one of the restaurants, located on the fourth floor, before quickly spreading to the rest of the building, possibly encouraged by the exterior wooden cladding.
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