At least 66 people were killed and dozens more injured, some of them critically, in a huge fire that broke out at a hotel in a popular ski resort in Turkey.
The fire broke out at the 12-story Grand Cartel Hotel, located close to a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey. According to testimonies and an investigation by fire experts, the fire broke out at 3:27 a.m., while 234 guests were staying at the hotel.
Official sources told Turkish news agencies that several guests were killed after trying to jump out of the windows of their hotel rooms.
Photographs of the hotel showed sheets tied together and dangling from the windows, when some guests attempted to escape the flames.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, "We are in deep pain. Unfortunately, we lost 66 people in the fire that broke out in this hotel."
It took the firefighters twelve hours to extinguish the fire that consumed the hotel. We have not yet discovered what caused the deadly fire, but local Governor Abdulaziz Aydin said that according to initial reports the fire broke out on the fourth floor of the hotel, where the restaurants are located. The fire then spread to the other floors of the hotel, which was almost completely occupied.
"Due to the distance between the hotel and the nearest city, worsened by the freezing weather conditions, it took the firefighters almost an hour to get to the hotel," the local governor said.