The fire coincided with school holidays when many families from nearby Istanbul and Ankara head to the Bolu mountains to ski.

The fire, which tore through the 12-story Grand Kartal hotel, in Kartalkaya, in northwestern Bolu province early Tuesday, trapped many of the registered 238 guests inside, leaving 78 people dead and dozens of others injured. It struck at the start of a two-week winter break for schools, and 36 of the victims were children, local media reports said.

Twenty children were among the 76 fatal victims of a fire that spread through a Turkish ski resort in the early morning hours of Jan. 21, according to local media. The fire took place at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya in northwestern Turkish province of Bolu.