Hotel owner, 10 others jailed for life over d£adly f!re outbreak
Hotel owner, 10 others jailed for life over deadly fire outbreak
in Turkey
A Turkish court has sentenced hotel owner, Halit Ergul and 10 others to life imprisonment for severe negligence leading to a deadly fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel in Bolu, Turkey.
The fire, which broke out on January 21 during the winter school break, killed 78 people, including 34 children, and injured 137 others in Kartalkaya.
The court convicted Ergul, his wife, two daughters, hotel managers, a deputy mayor, and a local fire chief of negligence. They received life imprisonment for the deaths of the children and an additional 25 years in prison for the 44 other fatalities.
A total of 32 individuals were charged in connection with the devastating fire that ravaged a 12-storey building, forcing residents to jump from windows to escape the inferno.
Hilmi Altin, who lost his wife and nine-year-old daughter, told AFP news agency: “I go to the cemetery each day. No psychologist can ease such a pain.”
An investigation revealed that faulty safety equipment and substandard gas equipment contributed to the fire, which started in the hotel’s restaurant.
However, hotel owner Halit Ergul denied responsibility, claiming the hotel passed regular inspections and shifting blame to the gas supplier and the tourism ministry.
“If I had foreseen the risk, I would have closed the hotel myself,” he told the hearing which took place inside a specially constructed court room at a local school.
Eighteen additional defendants, mostly hotel employees, received prison sentences ranging from 12 to 22 years.
Meanwhile, two cooks and others were acquitted. The hotel, located in the popular resort area of Bolu Mountains, was fully occupied with skiers from Istanbul and Turkey’s capital, Ankara, during the school holidays when the fire occurred.
