Fire in Türkiye: A chain of “irresponsibilities” led to disaster

“There is no point in looking for someone to blame, because many people have not taken responsibility. This is the main problem,” denounces Derya Basyilmaz, president of the Ankara Chamber of Architecture, after the deadly fire at a ski resort.

The final toll of the tragedy in the Grand Kartal hotel stands at 78 dead, the Ministry of Justice said on Thursday, announcing the end of the work to identify the victims. Ms. Basyilmaz has mobilized with a delegation of experts to establish a report that she plans to make public, she said Wednesday evening at l’AFP.

At this stage, eleven people were arrested, including a deputy mayor of Bolu, the neighboring capital to which the station depends, the fire chief of Bolu, the owner of Grand Kartal, its general manager and its chief electrician. “According to our information there were three staircases in this building… but none were fireproof,” says Ms. Basyilmaz, who points out the absence of secure, fireproof evacuation routes, protected by fire doors.

Likewise, she continues, specifying that she had not yet had access to the premises, “we know that there was an alarm system but that it was not working”. The establishment was also without automatic water extinguishers (sprinklers), designed to be triggered in the event of fires and to facilitate the work of firefighters by drowning the flames, she assures.

Without an alarm or evacuation routes, entire families who were staying in this luxury establishment during the school holidays found themselves trapped in the middle of the night by flames and smoke.

“The fact that nothing worked led to the scale of the disaster,” she says. “We would have had many fewer victims” if safety standards had been respected but “perhaps not zero,” she believes.

Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said the hotel had received all the necessary certifications. But according to Derya Basyilmaz, the last inspection was in 2007. “A certification is not valid for life. It must be regularly revised and updated” because regulations change, notes the president of the Ankara Chamber of Architecture, who also points to “numerous renovations carried out without competent experts”.

Finally, the very location of the hotel, built overlooking the ski slopes to provide a panoramic view, prevented emergency services from accessing its highest façade, she laments.

“Normally, fire trucks need to be able to access all sides of a building. None should remain out of reach. However, the back of the hotel was suspended above a cliff. No truck was able to get there. No one was able to intervene on this facade,” regrets Ms. Basyilmaz. According to the Turkish press, the fire broke out in a restaurant located on the fourth floor of the establishment, whose facades and interiors are now charred.

Turkey’s chambers of architecture and engineering, as well as law bars across the country, had already mobilized after the powerful earthquake that shook the southeast of the country in February 2023, causing more than 53 500 dead.

Coming from all over Turkey, these professionals were deployed in the most affected cities to collect evidence of the numerous breaches of anti-seismic regulations.

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