Olympic skier from Turkey and his father killed in hotel fire
An Olympic skier and his father were killed Thursday in a fire at a closed ski resort hotel in northwest Turkey.
The victims were identified by The Associated Press as Berkin Usta, 25, a skier who represented Turkey at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, and his father, Yahya Usta, 57, president of the Turkish Ski and Snowboard Teachers Association.
Turkey's sports minister, Osman Askin Bak, addressed the loss in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
'I learned with deep sorrow the news that our national athlete Berkin Usta, who represented Türkiye at the Beijing Winter Olympics, and his father, former national athlete Yahya Usta, passed away in a fire that broke out in Bursa,' he said according to a translation.
Outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach also posted on X about the deaths, calling them tragic. Bach wrote, 'Berkin lived his Olympic dream by competing at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 in Alpine skiing.'
The skier and his father, whose wife, Fikriye, was said to have survived the fire, were all staying on the fifth floor of the Kervansaray Hotel in Uludag, Turkey, according to the AP, even though the hotel had been shut down in early January when its accommodation permit was cancelled.
Authorities have not made clear why they were there, the AP reported. The provincial governor's office told reporters a dozen staff members but no guests were at the hotel when the fire began at 5:30 a.m. Several people suffering smoke inhalation were hospitalized.
Television coverage of the fire at the 30-year-old hotel, located on the slopes of a popular ski destination less than three hours from Istanbul, showed it was quickly engulfed by flames, according to the AP, which said the upper floors were gutted.
An investigation has been launched and the hotel manager has been detained according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. The deadly blaze comes two months after 79 people were killed in a fire that occurred during a school holiday at another Turkish winter resort.
An investigation into the January 21 fire at the Grand Kartal hotel in Kartalkaya has led to the detention of 28 people who are awaiting trial.
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