Death toll in Turkish hotel fire rises to 76
The death toll from a fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel in Turkey has risen to 76 and more than 50 people have been injured.
The fire broke out at the Grand Kartal Hotel, located on a mountaintop, on Monday night local time.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on social media that a fire broke out at a 12-story wooden hotel in the Kartalkaya ski resort at 3:27 a.m. local time on Monday. The fire spread quickly and became dangerous.
The Turkish Interior Ministry initially put the death toll at 10, but later raised it to 76. Turkish media reports said at least two people died after jumping from hotel windows. Television footage showed smoke rising into the sky with snow-capped mountains behind the hotel.
Bolu Governor Abdulaziz Aydin said, “Initial reports suggest that the fire broke out in the restaurant area on the fourth floor of the hotel and spread to the upper floors.”
He said it took firefighters more than an hour to reach the hotel in Kartalkaya and the center of Bolu due to the distance and cold weather.
The country’s interior minister said emergency services had deployed 267 people to put out the fire.
Meanwhile, by midnight, the local mayor said they were still trying to reach parts of the hotel.
On the other hand, according to local media, 234 people were staying in the hotel at the time of the accident. 80 to 90 percent of them were there for the holidays because schools are currently closed.
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