Türkiye’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on Friday submitted a motion to set up a parliamentary committee to investigate the devastating fire at a ski hotel in the country’s northwest.
“The fire must be investigated and brought to light in all its aspects; those responsible for it must be determined,” the party’s motion said.
Other parties, chiefly opposition parties, are expected to follow the AK Party’s suit for a similar motion, which will be discussed at next week’s general assembly after the semester break is over.
Should the motion pass, the parliamentary committee would probe the blaze that killed 78, including 36 children.
The tragedy sparked calls for accountability and reform, and independent experts have said the Grand Kartal Hotel, at the Kartalkaya ski resort in western Türkiye, lacked basic fire safety measures.
The government has appointed six prosecutors to lead an investigation into the cause of the fire, which came at the start of a two-week winter break for schools, when hotels in the area are filled to capacity.
Authorities have detained 11 people for questioning, including the hotel's owner, Bolu's deputy mayor and the acting fire department chief. No charges have been brought yet. The hotel's management pledged full cooperation and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed accountability.
The blaze, which appeared to have started at the restaurant section on the fourth floor of the wooden-clad hotel, spread quickly through to the upper floors. Guests and staff jumped out of windows to escape smoke and flame-filled rooms or dangled sheets out of windows to lower themselves out.
Survivor accounts indicate that the hotel's fire detection system did not function, that there were no sprinklers and that guests were not able to locate the building's two fire escapes in the smoke-filled corridors.
HaberTürk television and other media reports have suggested that the design of the fire escapes ended up spreading the blaze to other floors.
Witnesses have also reported that the firefighters arrived 45 minutes after the fire was first reported.
