► What are the causes of the fire?
According to the first elements of the investigation, the fire which devastated the Grand Kartal hotel on Tuesday January 21, in the ski resort of Kartalkaya (near the Black Sea), started from the kitchens, located on the 4th floor of the building which has 12. The flames then spread to the lower floors, possibly encouraged by the exterior wooden cladding. Some of the customers on the upper floors, trapped, died while jumping out of the window. Others used sheets to escape down the side of the building. The provisional toll, announced by the Ministry of the Interior, is 76 dead, including 14 members of the same family, according to the Turkish press, and 51 injured. Twenty patients remain hospitalized in Bolu. Due to the snow and the hotel’s distance from the city center, it took firefighters more than an hour to reach the scene of the fire.
► Was the hotel equipped with regulatory fire-fighting equipment?
The property was last inspected in 2024 and, according to the tourism minister, there had been no concerns about its fire safety before Tuesday’s disaster. However, according to the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), according to regulations, an automatic fire extinguishing system is necessary. Gold, “in the photos published on the hotel’s website, we see that the automatic watering system, which was supposed to be installed in 2008, was not installed”notes the union in a press release.
It is not clear whether other regulations were violated, the union adds, but based on the survivors’ statements, “It is understood that the smoke detection and fire alarm systems, fire doors did not operate and escape routes could not be determined”. The tourism minister, however, denied the absence of emergency staircases, saying that the hotel had two.
-► Why does the drama take a very political turn?
The Bolu Mountains are popular with skiers from Istanbul and the Turkish capital Ankara, about 170 km away, and the hotel was operating at full capacity at the start of the two-week school holiday. Well-known personalities from the sporting world, such as a 10-year-old swimming champion and her mother, but also from the world of business and university, stayed there and are among the victims. Eight relatives of a former deputy from the AKP, the president’s party, also died in the flames. “There is no excuse for such deaths in 2025”launched late Tuesday Özgür Özel, the leader of the CHP, the main opposition party.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the perpetrators of the negligence leading to the fire «would be held responsible”. At this point, nine people were arrested, including the hotel manager. A day of national mourning was declared and the Turkish flag was flown at half-mast on Wednesday until sunset.
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