Reuters. A fire at a ski resort hotel in Turkey's Bolu mountains killed 66 people on Tuesday (January 21) and forced panicked guests to jump out of windows in the middle of the night.
Some 51 people were also injured, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said at the Kartalkaya ski resort in northwest Turkey.
The fire began around 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) on the restaurant floor of the 12-storey Grand Kartal Hotel, authorities said.
Several fire engines and ambulances surrounded the charred, wood-fronted building, with white bed sheets tied together and dangling from one upper-floor window where people tried to flee.
Yerlikaya said there were 238 guests at the hotel lying at the base of several ski slopes. It was still smoldering in the afternoon.
He added that fire crews began battling the blaze about 45 minutes after the first call.
An investigation was underway into the fire, which coincided with school holidays when many families from nearby Istanbul and Ankara head to the Bolu mountains to ski.
