A deadly hotel fire in a Turkish ski resort has sparked grief and anger

The first indication of danger to their loved ones was an urgent message sent to the family’s WhatsApp group around 5:30 am.

A brother and sister are begging for help after they were trapped in a ski lodge in Turkey and caught on fire.

“They saved us,” their uncle Ozgur Turkmen wrote in a phone interview. “We cannot meet our parents. There is no fire brigade.

Within hours, the siblings had their parents dead.

At least 76 people were among those killed in a fire earlier on Tuesday at the Grand Kartal Hotel in a ski resort 180 miles east of Istanbul.

As the fire raged through the 12-storey lodge on the snow-capped peak, guests on a ski holiday in Turkey and the staff who had spent the night there were seen struggling to escape as thick smoke engulfed them.

Several survivors said they did not hear any fire alarms and were unable to escape the fire. In a statement, the Turkish Engineers Association said photographs taken of the hotel before the fire showed no signs of a sprinkler system allegedly installed years ago.

The sudden death of so many people in what was supposed to be a fun winter getaway has left survivors and their relatives grief-stricken and angry, with some calling for accountability for officials who failed to ensure the building was safe.

“I’m angry, but now we’re suffocating,” Mr. Turkmen said. “First I will live my pain and then I will seek justice.”

Turkey’s justice minister said on Tuesday that prosecutors were investigating the fire, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said anyone whose negligence caused the fire would be punished.

On Wednesday, attending the funeral of a large family that lost 14 members in the fire, Mr. Erdogan struck a deep chord.

“We are hurt. Our hearts are burning,” he said. “My condolences to the family and to our country.”

The hotel is within walking distance to the slopes and offers amenities that cater to upper-middle-class families vacationing there. Some of them return year after year with their children.

It offered hot-stone and deep-tissue massages and had a game room and indoor pool. A cozy, wood-paneled bar and restaurant had nooks to curl up next to fireplaces.

The identities of those killed in the fire – written by colleagues, relatives, schools and clubs they attended, and social media accounts – show mostly wealthy professionals, many with their children or other family members.

They include a business school dean and his daughter. A 10-year-old competitive swimmer and her mother. sixth and ninth grade brothers and their mother; The father survived. Brothers who were energy company executives and a son each. An orthodontist, her husband and their two children. Two chefs working in the hotel.

Among the mourners at Mr Erdogan’s funeral was Zehra Gultekin, who worked in sales at Turkish Airlines. She died in the fire along with her husband, their four children and nine other relatives.

Mr. Turkmen, whose niece and nephew texted relatives for help, said they were on vacation with his father, Nedim, an accountant and newspaper columnist, and his mother, Ayse, a workplace-safety expert.

The family loved the hotel and returned to it every summer for more than a decade, he said.

Daughter Alla Dora, 18, is in her final year of high school and plans to study English or social science in Britain.

Her 22-year-old brother, Yuce Ata, earned an economics degree in London and returned to Turkey to start a business.

She slipped. He rode on the ice.

When other relatives saw his sisters’ messages, Mr. Turkmen called him and headed to the hotel. He later receives the bodies of his relatives, and when they disappear, they seem to have tried to flee.

“The key card was in my brother’s pocket, and he took money,” Mr Turkmen said. “My sister was wearing her clothes.”

Deniz Bilisi Gokmen, former editor of Sozku newspaper Nedim, said in a phone interview that she is tired of the accidents in Turkey that can lead to death.

“As a citizen, I go to bed every night wondering what I will wake up in the morning,” he said, recalling the recent earthquakes and deadly coal mine explosions.

“Such a heavy, heavy loss,” she said.