Fire safety failures in deadly Turkish hotel blaze

Billed for anyone interested in fire safety considerations for different types of hotels and the appropriate fire detection and suppression systems for each, Fire Knowledge’s forthcoming webinar on Fire Safety in The UK and European Hotel Industry on February 26, is a timely event. It comes after the recent Grand Kartal Hotel fire in the Turkish ski resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu which killed 78 tourists, following a string of fire protection failures.

Scheduled long before the fire took place, the webinar will look at advances in fire detection technologies and the different types of fire suppression systems against the backdrop of laws and regulations, the impact of fire risk assessments and emergency response times, all captured in promoting a fire safety culture.

The tragedy in Bolu points to a breakdown in the latter, a comprehensive fire safety culture – a central flaw in the findings of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and reports from Dame Judith Hackitt’s onwards – which appears to have been echoed in this disaster. The building’s wooding cladding should have been fire-resistant. It did not appear to be. Fire alarms were not activated. Although the building was meant to be evacuated in 15 to 30 minutes, the 238 residents had little chance as the automatic sprinkler system, which was meant to be installed in 2008, had not been, and it is alleged by survivors that emergency responders took up to an hour and a half to attend.

As the criminal investigation continues, with 11 people currently detained, including the hotel owner, there is some clarity emerging in terms of the currency of fire safety standards with Bolu Mayor Tanju Ozcan stating that the last report claiming the hotel was fire safe was issued back in 2007, although there have been claims the hotel had a fire competence certificate issued by the fire department.

There are obvious parallels with Grenfell – the Swiss Cheese effect of multiple critical failures – underpinned by the absence of an effective fire safety culture. The Fire Knowledge webinar aims to project an aspirational approach to hotel fire safety protection as it seeks to develop effective emergency response plans, alongside regular testing and drills to ensure preparedness. ‘Crucially, within the hotel industry, the webinar will look at engaging staff and guests in fire safety initiatives,’

However, the Grand Kartal Hotel tragedy was by no means an anomaly with a succession of recent fires highlighting the need to improve fire safety measures around the world, including the Riga Hostel fire in Latvia in 2021 that killed 11 people. But not since the Hotel Corona de Aragon fire in Spain in 1979, which killed 72 people, has a tragedy been on such a shocking scale of loss.

Sadly, for those involved in improving fire safety measures across the world, there is an inevitability surrounding critical systems failures, largely because they are not inter-connected, embedded culturally and not monitored or enforced appropriately. It is not that it is overly complex, it is that a comprehensive systemic approach is too frequently supplanted by quick fixes and assumptions, leading to the horrific tragedy visited upon the residents of the Grand Kartal Hotel.

To register for the webinar click here

Andrew Lynch

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