Footage shows hotel executive escaping blaze in deadly Bolu fire
BOLU
Security camera footage from a deadly fire in the northern city of Bolu has emerged, showing the hotel’s general manager and his family fleeing their room minutes after the fire broke out.
The fire broke out on Jan. 21 at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the Kartalkaya ski resort, killing 78, among whom 36 were children, and injuring 133.
In the footage, the hotel’s general manager, Emir Aras, his wife Elif Aras and their child are seen leaving their room on the 7th floor at 3:34 a.m., about 18 minutes after the fire reportedly started.
Emir Aras is seen running toward the end of the corridor before briefly returning to the room.
His wife Elif Aras, who is also the daughter of hotel owner Halit Ergül and a board member at the hotel, appears to look into the corridor in panic before going back inside.
A short time later, the family reemerges and runs down the hallway, without alerting anyone else.
The video ends with smoke quickly filling the corridor.
Elif Aras and Emir Aras are both in pretrial detention in connection with the fire.
The trial into the deadly incident remains ongoing.
During the hearing on July 13, plaintiff Bülent Akişli, who lost his mother, brother and niece in the fire, directly addressed Emir Aras in court.
Akişli said he had reviewed the footage and challenged Emir Aras’ earlier statements.
"Emir Aras, can you look me in the eyes?" Akişli said. "I watched the footage this morning. You kept saying, ‘I knocked on doors, I shouted.’ That’s not true. You opened the door, stepped out with a phone in your hand, went back in, took your wife and child, and left without saying a word to those innocent people. You were sleeping on the 7th floor, my mother, brother and niece were also in a room on that same corridor. Heartless."
The issue of hotel staff failing to alert guests during the fire has drawn widespread criticism throughout the trial.
During one trial, a witness testified that hotel manager Zeki Yılmaz allegedly said during the fire, “Don’t inform anyone, we’ll handle it ourselves,” adding to growing outrage over the hotel’s handling of the disaster.
