Survivor Recalls 'Screaming' as Guests Tried to Escape Massive Hotel Fire Using Sheets and Blankets

Mar. 15, 2025

The deadly fire that broke out at Grand Kartal Hotel in Turkey on Jan. 21, 2025.Photo:Mehmet Emin Gurbuz/Anadolu via Getty

Mehmet Emin Gurbuz/Anadolu via Getty

A man who escaped a fire at a ski resort in Turkey, which reportedlykilled at least 76 peopleand injured at least 51, is speaking out about the chaos at the scene.

“My wife smelled the burning. The alarm did not go off,” said Yelkovan, who was on the third floor of the 12-story resort in the ski resort located in Bolu province’s Köroğlu Mountains area, according to theAP.

“We tried to go upstairs but couldn’t, there were flames,” he added. “We went downstairs and came [outside].”

The aftermath of the fire that broke out at Grand Kartal Hotel in Turkey on Jan. 21, 2025.Mehmet Emin Gurbuz/Anadolu via Getty

“At that time, the 4th and 5th floors were all burning,” he recalled. “The people on the upper floors were screaming.”

While some cried out, others attempted to escape the blaze through the windows, Yelkovan told İhlas News Agency.

Some “dangled down a sheet” in their attempts to flee, he said. Still others tried to head back into the hotel, where loved ones were trapped.

“Some were trying to get in, some were trying to jump out. Some had children inside, some had friends inside,” added Yelkovan, who claimed that it took the fire department over an hour to arrive at the scene.

Firefighters working to put out the fatal fire at Grand Kartal Hotel on Jan. 21, 2025.Evrim Aydin/Anadolu via Getty

Evrim Aydin/Anadolu via Getty

Echoing Yelkovan’s personal account, Bolu governor Abdulaziz Aydin said that due to the hotel’s location, as well as the freezing weather conditions, it took fire engines over an hour to show up, theBBCreported.

The governor, who suggested the blaze broke out in the hotel’s fourth-floor restaurant, also said that at least two of the victims “died after jumping from the building in a panic,” per the AP.

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The hotel had more than 230 guests at the time of the fire, Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, per the AP.

A cause for the fire has not been announced, butfour people have been arrested, including the owner of the hotel, theTurkish Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunçannounced on X. Additional details have not yet been made public.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğanhas since announced that Wednesday, Jan. 22, will be a national day of mourning.

source: people.com