ANKARA, Turkey — Officials say that a fire at a hotel at a ski resort in northwest Turkey on Tuesday killed at least 10 people and sent 32 more to the hospital.
Reports and officials say the fire started around 3:30 a.m. in the kitchen of the 12-story Grand Kartal hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province. The reason for the fire was being looked into.
Gov. Abdulaziz Aydin told the state-run Anadolu Agency that two of the people who died jumped off the building in fear and died. NTV said that some people tried to get out of their rooms by using sheets and blankets as ladders.
Anĭdin said that 234 people were staying at the hotel.
When the fire broke out, Necmi Kepcetutan, a ski teacher at the hotel, said he was asleep and ran out of the building quickly. He told the TV station NTV that he then helped about 20 people leave the hotel.
He said that the smoke inside the hotel made it hard for people to find the fire exit.
“I can’t get through to some of my peers.” The ski teacher told the station, “I hope they are okay.”
On TV, the roof and upper floors of the hotel were seen on fire.
Six prosecutors were chosen by the government to lead a probe into the fire. It was mentioned on NTV that the chalet-style wooden cladding on the outside of the hotel may have helped the fire spread faster.
The 161-room hotel is perched on the edge of a cliff, which makes it harder to put out the fire, the station said.
Kartalkaya is a well-known ski area in the Koroglu mountains, which are about 185 miles (300 kilometers) east of Istanbul. The fire happened during the break between school semesters when hotels in the area were usually very full.
He said that 30 fire trucks and 28 ambulances were sent to the scene.
As a safety measure, other hotels at the resort were removed, and guests were put up in hotels in the Bolu area.
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