A Turkish court has sentenced 11 people, including the owner and senior management of the Grand Kartal Hotel, to life imprisonment over a fire that killed 78 people—among them about 30 children—at a luxury ski resort in January.
The blaze, which swept through the Grand Kartal Hotel in the Kartalkaya mountain resort area of Bolu on January 21, 2025, also left 137 people injured. Investigators found that critical safety regulations had been ignored, contributing to the scale of the tragedy.
Grieving Families Demand Justice
The disaster devastated several families, with many victims’ relatives attending the trial and displaying photographs of their loved ones outside the Bolu gymnasium used for the court hearings.
According to Turkish media, those handed life sentences included the hotel’s owner, manager, and several board members. A deputy mayor and the local fire chief were also jailed for their roles in the tragedy. In total, 32 people were charged, 20 of whom had been in custody throughout the proceedings.
Alarm System Failed
Investigations revealed that the hotel’s fire alarm system had failed to operate on the night of the blaze, while some of the gas installations did not meet mandatory safety standards.
Hotel owner Halit Ergul, who received a life sentence, denied wrongdoing and blamed the gas equipment supplier.
“We had regular inspections,” he told the court. “I never allowed fireworks during weddings because I didn’t want the birds to die.”
Survivors and grieving relatives delivered emotional testimonies, describing how the fire started in the hotel’s restaurant shortly before 3:30 a.m.
“I go to the cemetery each day. No psychologist can ease such a pain,” said Hilmi Altin, who lost his wife and nine-year-old daughter in the fire.
The court’s verdict marks one of Turkey’s harshest rulings in recent years over a public safety disaster, underscoring growing frustration with the neglect of building and safety regulations in the country’s hospitality industry.
Source: AFP reports
