Witnesses describe chaos and panic at Turkish ski resort as fire ripped through hotel where 79 died

KARTALKAYA, Turkey (AP) — As flames tore through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey, friends Esra Karakisa and Halime Cetin watched helplessly as the horror unfolded before them. Some people were leaning out of smoke-filled rooms pleading for help, while others made the harrowing decision to jump.

Tuesday's fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel, in Kartalkaya, in the Koroglu mountains in Bolu province left at least 79 people dead and 51 injured. It came near the start of a two-week winter break for schools when hotels in the region are filled to capacity.

“There was no one around. They were calling for firefighters. They were breaking the windows. Some could no longer stand the smoke and flames, and they jumped,” Cetin, an employee at a hotel adjacent to the Grand Kartal, told The Associated Press.

Karakisa said: “It was awful. We were terrified. People were screaming. The cries of children especially affected us. We wanted to help but there was nothing we could do. I couldn’t look it was so terrifying.”

Authorities have assigned six prosecutors to investigate the cause of the fire, which appeared to have started at the restaurant section on the fourth floor of the wooden-clad hotel and spread quickly through to the upper floors.

On Wednesday a deputy mayor and the acting fire chief for Bolu were both detained, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported, bringing to 11 the number of people taken into custody as part of the investigation, including the hotel's owner.

Flags at government buildings and Turkish diplomatic missions abroad were lowered to half-staff as the nation shocked by the disaster observed a day of mourning for the victims.

The Bolu chief prosecutor's office on Wednesday raised the death toll to 79 from the previous 76. Authorities have so far identified 56 of the victims, Anadolu reported.

Twelve people were still being treated in hospitals, including one person who was in serious condition, the Health Ministry said.

On Wednesday, Turkey began conducting funeral prayers for the deceased.

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled to Bolu from the capital Ankara to attend the funeral of eight members of the Gultekin family, who were related to an official of his ruling party.

“Our hearts are broken,” Erdogan said during the funeral of Zehra Sena Gultekin, her husband, their four children and another relative. “May God grant us patience.”

In Ankara, mourners joined officials at the Ahmet Hamdi Akseki Mosque to bid farewell to Ahmet Cetiz, a doctor at a private hospital in the city, his wife Habibe and their sons, Vedat and Esat. Vedat's twin brother, Sedat, is also believed to have died, but his body has not been identified yet, the private DHA news agency reported.

The funeral was also held in Ankara on Wednesday for 15-year-old high Eren Bagci, a skiing enthusiast who was in Kartalkaya with his friends, DHA said.

The hotel had 238 registered guests. The fire was reported at 3:27 a.m. local time and the fire department began to respond at 4:15 a.m., the interior minister told reporters.

Officials and witnesses said the rescue efforts were hampered by the fact that part of the 161-room hotel is on the side of a cliff.

According to Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, the hotel underwent inspections in 2021 and 2024, and “no negative situation regarding fire competence” was reported by the fire department.

Karakisa said she eventually brought clothes and water for the survivors while others rushed to bring mattresses for people to jump onto or propped up ladders against the wall to help them escape.

Among those who placed mattresses was Baris Salgur, a cleaner in a nearby hotel.

“They were saying, ‘Please help, we’re burning!' They were saying, ‘Call the fire department.' We were trying to calm them down, but there was nothing we could do, we couldn’t get in either,” Salgur, 19, said. "It was very high, we couldn’t extend a rope or anything of course. We were trying to do the best we could.

“People jumped from a great height, I couldn’t look. There were two women at the top floor. The flames had literally entered the room. They couldn’t stand it and jumped.”

Salgur described seeing a man on the top floors holding a baby and shouting for a mattress he could throw his baby on.

"We told him to be a little calmer. He waited, then the fire department came and took them (out), but unfortunately the baby had died from smoke inhalation,” he said.

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Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Robert Badendieck in Istanbul contributed to this report.