The devastating fire at a hotel in a winter ski resort in Turkey’s northwestern province of Bolu, in which 76 people died and 51 others were injured, continues leaving many questions with no answers among the public in general, and among the families and friends of the victims in particular, as the investigation into what happened unfolds. But above all, many lives – some, too many, too young – have been cut short by a tragedy that most likely could have been avoided, and which was caused by an accumulation of mistakes, negligence, carelessness and lack of foresight.
Turkish media reported that some 35 people are still hospitalised in intensive care units and in critical condition from injuries sustained during the fire, which according to initial reports may have started due to a gas leak in the kitchen of the restaurant located on the 4th floor of the building, which has 12 floors in total and is built on a steep slope; the fact that the façade of the hotel was completely covered with wood fanned the fire and allowed it to spread rapidly, engulfing the entire structure.
The accommodation, called Grand Kartal Otel (Grand Kartal Hotel), was one of the most iconic and storied hotels in the famous ski resort of Kartalkaya, located at an altitude of 2,200 metres in the Köroğlu Mountains, some 300 km east of Istanbul. Its fame was such that the hotel itself eventually gave its name to the resort of Kartalkaya (literally ‘Kartal Rock’, although kartal in Turkish means ‘eagle’).
As reported by CNN Türk, the hotel was officially opened in 1998 as a new complex next to a previous hotel, the Kartal Otel (Kartal Hotel); founded in 1978 by Mazhar Murtezaoğlu, in the following years Murtezaoğlu built next to the Kartal Hotel a second building, and 20 years later the Grand Kartal Hotel. After his death, his family and children took over the business, with his son-in-law currently running the Grand Kartal Hotel at the time of the devastating fire.
It took more than an hour for the fire brigades to arrive
With 161 rooms and 350 beds, the Grand Kartal Hotel had been renovated in 2015. Some media in Turkey have highlighted the fact that the hotel was built on a slope, so that the front facade – where the main entrance and access for vehicles was located – was about 7 storeys high, but the back – where access for firefighters and rescue teams was impossible in case of fire – sloped down the mountainside reaching 12 storeys in total.
It is also striking that there was no fire brigade in Kartalkaya, a very touristic area that hosts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, with the nearest fire station located in the town of Bolu itself: that is, an hour’s drive up a winding road up the mountain. In the first minutes of the fire, witnesses recorded hotel guests shouting for help from the windows and asking where the firefighters were: but it took more than an hour for them to arrive (some witnesses say up to two hours), and by the time they did, the fire had spread to the roof, where several groups of young students were staying.
It took firefighters almost 10 hours to bring the fire under control, their work severely hampered by difficult access and low temperatures, and the back of the hotel – the one built on the hillside – burnt beyond repair, virtually abandoned to its fate as firefighters were unable to gain access to it. ‘There was no one to help. People were calling the fire brigade, breaking windows… Some people couldn’t stand the smoke and flames, and jumped,’ said an employee of another hotel who went to the scene trying to help.
Hundreds of guests trapped, with no way out
Firefighters were first alerted to a fire at the Gran Kartal Hotel at 3:21 a.m., and according to authorities, the first intervention took place at 4:06 a.m. Guests were trapped inside the building and unable to get out, with automatic doors blocked because of the fire. Initial investigations have revealed that neither the hotel’s smoke sensors nor fire alarms were working, so many guests – the vast majority of whom were asleep at the time – did not notice the fire until it was too late.
In addition, it has been established that the hotel’s fire escapes did not comply with standard regulations. The Gran Kartal Hotel had two emergency staircases in case of fire, but both were located indoors, contrary to the usual standard which requires them to be built outside. Thus, when the fire spread from the kitchen to the rest of the building, it also affected the fire escapes, which simply became unusable.
The so-called fire doors, which give access to the corridors, were also not up to standard and, according to Turkish media reports, were not fire-resistant. The same applies to the emergency exits: by law there should be at least two exits per floor, but this was not met either. In fact, according to CNN Türk, the hotel had no evacuation or emergency plan in case of fire.
More glaring is the complete absence of a fire extinguishing system – normally water sprinklers located along the ceiling – throughout the hotel. For an accommodation of such size and capacity as the Gran Kartal Hotel, such systems are required by law, and were supposed to be installed in 2008… The reality is that the system was never installed. Paradoxically, it has come to the attention of the media and public opinion that the hotel has passed several fire inspections in recent years, the last of which was carried out at the end of last December precisely in the restaurant area, although the subsequent report recommended taking measures against a series of heat sources and materials that could cause a fire… As it finally happened.
Lives broken by fire
As we have already mentioned, the very location of the hotel and its design presented an additional challenge for the firefighters and rescuers who arrived in the early hours of the morning to extinguish the fire. Access to the upper floors, already surrounded by flames, became virtually impossible by the time the emergency services arrived. Witnesses describe scenes so tragic that they are hard to even remember, including one man on one of the upper floors who, who from his bedroom window pleaded in tears for his baby to be saved. Eventually firefighters were able to arrive in time to save him and his wife, but could not save the baby, who died of smoke inhalation.
The hotel was well known among ski and snow lovers throughout Turkey, and was hosting prominent figures at the time of the fire, including businessmen and sportsmen. Among them was Nedim Türkmen, former president of the Orduspor football club, who died in the fire along with his wife and two children. Also the dean of Istanbul’s Özyeğin University, Atakan Yalçın, who died along with his daughter and several young students spending their holidays there.
Yüksel Gültekin, a well-known lawyer from Bolu, survived the fire but lost no less than 7 members of his family, including his children, their wives and three grandchildren. He waited for hours in front of the hotel with several family members, until he received the sad news. Athletes or former members of Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe sports clubs also lost their lives in the fire, including Vedia Nil Apak, a 15-year-old swimmer who died together with her mother.
One of the stories that has moved the most the Turkish public in the aftermath of the Bolu hotel fire is that of Zehra Sena Gültekin, a Turkish Airlines employee who was staying at the Grand Kartal Hotel when the fire broke out with her husband, three children and nine other members of her family, coinciding with the school holidays. Several media outlets have reported that, seeing the flames consuming the hotel, Zehra called her mother to apologise and make peace with her. She and the rest of her family members perished in the fire. For them and for the 76 victims of this tragedy, the whole of Turkey is in mourning today.
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As a history lover, Pablo Gómez was captivated by Turkey from the first day he visited it in 2006: he got married there, has a house there… and has since become an expert on Turkey’s current affairs. With a long experience in media, he has been at the helm of hispanatolia.com since 2011.
