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Top engineers union puts blame on tourism ministry in preliminary report on deadly hotel fire

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A preliminary reported drafted by a leading engineering union in Turkey has pointed to the country’s tourism ministry as being responsible for inspecting the fire safety measures at a ski resort hotel in northwestern Turkey that was the scene of a deadly fire last week, the Anka news agency reported.

The fire, which erupted in the early morning hours of January 21 at the Grand Kartal Hotel, a 12-story ski resort in Kartalkaya popular with vacationers during Turkey’s midterm school holiday, claimed the lives of 78 people and injured 51 others. Among the victims were 36 minors.

The tragedy sent shockwaves across the country, with videos circulating on social media of people desperately screaming for help or jumping from windows.

The high death toll was attributed to the lack of fire warning systems and measures at the hotel and sparked a blame game between the tourism ministry and the Bolu Municipality, run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), since Kartalkaya is located in Bolu province.

However, a preliminary report drafted by the Ankara branch of the Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects’ Chambers (TMMOB) showed that responsibility lies with the tourism ministry for the inspection of fire safety measures at the hotel.

The report, which aimed to determine how a small fire that reportedly broke out in the hotel kitchen turned into an inferno, found numerous shortcomings regarding the presence and functioning of smoke detectors and fire extinguishers as well as potential fire hazards and physical obstructions at the hotel.

Contradicting a statement from Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, who told the media that there were two fire escapes at the hotel, the report found that there was only one fire escape and that it had not been built in line with fire safety regulations.

The report said there was an electrical shaft, electrical panel and base station in the fire escape, contrary to the regulations, which melted during the fire, rendering the escape unusable.

The report also found that although it is mandated by law, there was no fire sprinkler system throughout the building and that the pumps were missing in the system that provided water to the fire hose cabinets, which are normally designed for accommodating, protecting, keeping and storing the fire hoses, the fire-hose barrels and if necessary, the fire extinguishers.

According to the TMMOB report the five elevators in the hotel were not integrated into a fire detection and warning system and continued to function at the time of the fire, leading to the death due to carbon monoxide poisoning of some people who had rushed to the elevators to evacuate the building.

Smoke detectors and panic buttons were not functioning and the emergency lighting system and exit signs were inadequate for helping people leave the building in the thick smoke caused by the fire, the report also showed.

Hotels face closure

The tragedy in Kartalkaya has prompted Turkish authorities to intensify the inspections of hotels and make sure that they take all the necessary measures for an emergency situation.

The tourism ministry has sent an “urgent” circular to the governors’ offices across all 81 provinces asking them to close down tourism facilities that do not have a tourism certification document, which is granted to the facilities by the ministry after making sure that they comply with safety and hygiene criteria.

Fifty hotels that lacked the necessary papers have been closed in the popular holiday resort of Antalya in southern Turkey so far.

In line with this, İstanbul Governor Davut Gül announced on Thursday that all hotels that do not have a tourism certification document issued by the ministry will have been closed down in İstanbul as of Monday.

Considering the scale of the disaster and alleged negligence on the part of the tourism ministry, some opposition politicians, journalists and even pro-government figures have been calling for the tourism minister’s resignation, a call that has so far fallen on deaf ears.

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