Turkish ski resort fire killed 78: Final toll

Istanbul (AFP): A fire at a ski resort in Turkey this week is now known to have killed 78 people, the justice ministry announced Thursday, saying all the victims had been identified.

On Wednesday evening, the prosecutor’s office in Bolu, the capital of the province where the tragedy occurred, had given a figure of 79 deaths.

Entire families perished when the huge fire swept through the Grand Kartal Hotel in Kartalkaya resort in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Questions have multiplied about fire safety measures at the luxury 12-story hotel amid growing suspicion that negligence contributed to the high death toll.

Survivors and experts have said the hotel’s fire alarm system did not work.

Derya Basyilmaz, head of the Ankara Chamber of Architects who was in Kartalkaya with a team of experts to prepare a report on the tragedy, told AFP the hotel had only one fire escape and no sprinkler system.

So far, 11 people have been arrested, among them the hotel’s owner, general manager, director and chief electrician, as well as the head of the Bolu fire department.