The SES Equality and Solidarity Association issued a statement highlighting that the tragic loss of lives in the Bolu Grand Kartal Hotel fire is not just a statistic but a devastating reminder of systemic negligence. Among the victims, most of whom were children, lives full of promise, cut short due to failures in responsibility and accountability.
On January 21, 2025, a catastrophic fire engulfed the 12-story Grand Kartal Hotel at the Kartalkaya Ski Resort in Bolu Province, Turkey, resulting in the tragic loss of at least 78 lives and injuring many. The blaze, which reportedly originated in the hotel’s restaurant on the fourth floor, rapidly spread throughout the building, exacerbated by wooden cladding and the absence of functional fire safety systems.
This incident has intensified scrutiny of Turkey’s regulatory oversight and infrastructure safety standards. The Grand Kartal Hotel had reportedly not received a substantial fire safety certificate since 2007, raising questions about the enforcement of safety regulations.
This tragedy is not an isolated event but part of a broader pattern of structural and governance issues in Turkey. The 2023 earthquakes, which claimed over 50,000 lives, exposed significant deficiencies in building regulations and urban planning, with many structures failing to meet earthquake-resistant standards.
As the SES Equality and Solidarity Association, we issued a statement highlighting that the tragic loss of 78 lives in the Bolu Grand Kartal Hotel fire is not just a statistic but a devastating reminder of systemic negligence. Among the victims, most of whom were children, were names like Alya, Kemal, Sümeyye, and Kaan—lives full of promise, cut short due to failures in responsibility and accountability.
We emphasized that, despite the presence of five hotels in the area with a capacity of 2,500 people, there were no fire trucks on-site, no functioning alarms, no smoke isolation systems, and a delayed response that cost precious time and lives.
“This disaster, like those in Soma, Çorlu, and İliç, reveals the ongoing indifference to human life and the lack of accountability from authorities,” our statement read.
We also called for urgent accountability and systemic changes to prevent such tragedies in the future. We declared:
“We are heartbroken, we are angry, and we are in revolt. We demand justice for the lives lost and action to ensure such failures never happen again. We will not forget, and we will not stay silent.”