Fire alarm didn't go off until I ran out: Survivor recounts Turkey resort tragedy

"The fire alarm didn't go off until I was out of the building," Eylem Senturk, a survivor of the devastating fire at Turkey's Kartalkaya ski resort that claimed at least 76 lives, told BBC. Her husband was forced to jump off the hotel porch to escape the smoke. "We are very lucky to have survived," she added.

Survivors of the fire, which broke out in the early hours of Monday, have raised serious concerns about the hotel's fire safety systems. Many reported that no alarms sounded during the critical moments, leaving them to navigate smoke-filled corridors in darkness. Some guests, trapped on the upper floors, resorted to jumping from windows in desperate attempts to escape.

The fire started at around 3.30 am (local time) in the restaurant area on the fourth floor, according to Turkey's interior minister. Firefighters arrived within 45 minutes, though Atakan Yelkovan, one of the guests staying on the third floor, claimed that his wife smelled smoke nearly an hour earlier.

"My wife smelled the fire. The alarm did not go off," he said. "It took about an hour to an hour-and-a-half for the fire brigade to arrive. In the meantime, the fourth and fifth floors were burning. People on the upper floors were screaming."

Initial investigations revealed that the 12-storey hotel, a popular destination hosting thousands of visitors annually, had a fire competence certificate reportedly issued by the fire department, BBC reported. However, Bolu's mayor, Tanju Ozcan, disputed this, stating that the fire department had not issued a positive report for the hotel since 2007.

Kazim Beceren, president of the Turkish Fire Protection and Education Foundation, while speaking to BBC, highlighted deficiencies in the hotel's fire systems, noting that in well-equipped establishments, fire detectors should respond to a fire within seconds, sending alerts to a control panel monitored round-the-clock.

"There will always be fires, but we would not expect so many people to die in this type of building," said Prof Sevket Ozgur Atayilmaz, a fire safety expert.

The investigation into the fire has led to the detention of nine people, including the hotel's owner, as per news agency Reuters. While the hotel management expressed sorrow over the loss of lives and pledged full cooperation with authorities, survivors' accounts of non-functioning fire alarms and inadequate escape routes have intensified scrutiny.

The death toll, one of the highest in Turkey's history for such an incident, has left many questioning whether basic fire safety standards were adhered to in the design and operation of the Grand Kartal Hotel.