A fire at a winter resort hotel in Turkey kills an Olympic skier and his father

Berkin Usta from Turkey skies in the giant slalom event in Yanqing, China, on Feb. 13, 2022. (Michael Kappeler / picture alliance via Getty Images)

ISTANBUL — A fire at a closed ski resort hotel in northwest Turkey killed an Olympic skier and his father Thursday, two months after a blaze at another Turkish winter resort left 79 dead.

The victims were named as Yahya Usta, president of the Turkish Ski and Snowboard Teachers Association, and his 25-year-old son Berkin, a skier who represented Turkey at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Yahya Usta, his son and wife were staying on the hotel’s fifth floor.

The Kervansaray Hotel in Uludag, Bursa province, was empty of guests when the fire started at 5:30 a.m. but 12 staff were present, Bursa governor’s office said. Several people suffering smoke inhalation were hospitalized.

The 30-year-old hotel was shut down in early January when its accommodation permit was cancelled, the governor’s office added.

TV images showed flames quickly engulfing the six-storey hotel, located on the slopes of one of Turkey’s most popular ski destinations, less than a three-hour drive from Istanbul.

Fire crews brought the blaze under control within two hours but not before the upper floors had been gutted.

Bursa Mayor Mustafa Bozbey said the fire began in the cafeteria.

“I learned with deep sorrow that our national athlete Berkin Usta and his father Yahya Usta lost their lives in the fire that broke out in the hotel in Uludag.” Sports Minister Osman Askin Bak said.

Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the Bursa fire.

In January, a 12-storey ski resort hotel in northwestern Turkey went up in flames during a school holiday, killing 79.

That fire, at the Grand Kartal hotel in Kartalkaya, in Bolu province’s Koroglu mountains, also started in the hotel’s dining area.

The state-run Anadolu news agency on Wednesday reported fresh arrests relating to the Bolu fire, taking the number of people in detention awaiting trial to 28.