Turkey was burying its dead on Wednesday, a day after a huge fire killed 76 people at a ski resort, as questions grow over safety measures at the luxury hotel.
As the nation observed a day of mourning, dozens of families were preparing to bury their loved ones who died as the blaze ripped through the 12-storey hotel.
But along with the grief there was anger, with many newspapers publishing allegations of negligence at the mountaintop hotel in Kartalkaya, which lies about two hours northwest of Ankara.
“It was not the fire but negligence that was responsible for so many deaths,” said the pro-government Hürriyet newspaper.
The fire, which began in the dead of night, struck at peak season for the Grand Kartal Hotel, which had 238 guests at the start of a two-week winter break.
More than 30 people remained in the hospital on Wednesday, one of whom was in intensive care, officials said.
On a freezing foggy morning, with flags flying at half-mast, rescuers resumed their search of the charred structure on Wednesday, where Turkish media said entire families had died.
Among those who were to be buried on Wednesday was a neurologist, his wife and their three children, including twin boys.
‘Profoundly disturbing’
The blaze broke out around 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT), sending huge clouds of smoke into the night air and sparking panic among the guests, many of whom tried to climb out of the windows, using bedsheets as ropes.
“I saw one kid hanging from the hotel window calling for help,” said Islam, who works at a nearby hotel and did not give his surname.
“I was profoundly disturbed. I still cannot forget the image,” he told Agence France-Presse, saying he knew some of the hotel staff who had died.
By Tuesday night investigators had identified 52 of the dead and returned 45 bodies to their families for burial, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the funeral of seven family members of a local official from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the nearby town of Bolu.
Yerlikaya said nine people, including the owner, had been detained in connection with the blaze, with investigators looking into the cause of the fire, possible negligence and who was responsible.
Speaking to Turkish media on Tuesday, several guests said no fire alarms or smoke detectors had sounded and that there were no fire escapes.
“No fire alarm went off … and there was no fire escape,” Atakan Yelkovan told the IHA news agency, saying it had taken “between an hour and an hour-and-a-half” for the firefighters to arrive.
But Tourism Minister Nuri Ersoy said the hotel had two fire escapes and had passed inspections in 2021 and 2024.
“No issues related to fire safety had been flagged by the fire department,” he said on Tuesday.
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Meanwhile, outrage erupted on social media when a refrigerated truck belonging to a poultry company featuring a photo of a grilled chicken was arranged by the Bolu Municipality to store the dead bodies of fire victims. Families were supposed to identify their loved ones in the truck, parked in front of the Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal Teaching and Research Hospital since the morgue had reached full capacity. Following the outrage, the photos on the truck were covered with white paper.
© Agence France-Presse