After the tragic fire at a hotel in Türkiye which left 76 dead, the country declared national mourning. Local media highlight the multiple negligences which allegedly led to the tragedy, while the Ministry of Tourism and the municipality of Bolu blame each other.
The day after a fire which killed at least 76 people in the middle of the night in a luxury hotel in a ski resort in central Turkey, the country entered into national mourning.
Present at the funeral of eight family members of a former deputy from his party, the AKP, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan let his emotion show.
The head of state was photographed drying his eyes, face turned to the ground. “Those responsible will have to be held accountable,” the president reportedly declared.
Some 238 customers were registered at the time of the incident, when the fire broke out in the twelve-story high establishment. Currently, around twenty people are still hospitalized in Bolu.
Nine people arrested
Since the event, the local press has continued to hold the hotel responsible for this incident, listing the negligence which, according to these media, led to this heavy toll. As a reminder, nine people, including the owner of the establishment, its general manager and a hotel electrician were arrested as part of the investigation, launched by the Ministry of Justice.
-The daily Cumhuriyet specifies that the hotel had no security measures. “There were no working emergency staircases, no fire extinguishers on the floors, even the fire alarm did not work,” said an employee of the establishment, interviewed by the media .
Other survivors also deplored yesterday the absence of alarms, stairs and fire doors in the hotel – a fact disputed by the Minister of Tourism.
However, according to the Ministry of Tourism, the establishment had been “verified” by the firefighters in 2021, then last year, in 2024. But, the Ministry of Tourism and the opposition municipality of Bolu are already referring each other responsibility for certifications of compliance with safety standards.
State officials say it was up to the municipality to conduct annual inspections to check the facility’s safety standards. For its part, the municipality maintains that the hotel benefited from an agreement directly with the Ministry of Tourism, thus placing responsibility for these reports on the firefighters.
The state Anadolu agency also published, this Wednesday, a document dating from January 2 issued by the municipality of Bolu, attesting to the conformity of a new “café-restaurant” on the 4th floor of the hotel, from where would be the fire started.
