Brit family 'almost died' when holiday hotel went up in flames
Bethany Wallace, 36, from Essex, has described the hotel she was staying going up in flames in Turkey. She claims she couldn't get through to EasyJet during the nightmare
A Brit mum says she thought her family was going to die after their four-star hotel went up in flames - with the smoke being so strong that they were "choking on it".
Bethany Wallace, from Grays, Essex, jetted off to Marmaris in Turkey for a two-week EasyJet holiday alongside her husband and three children on April 1. The family were only three days into their vacation when they awoke to a "chemical smell" at around 5am.
The 36-year-old recalled frantically waking up her family as smoke quickly filled their rooms. The mum-of-three claims she heard no fire alarm and says she couldn't find any staff to tell them where to go.
Bethany, who is a baker and business owner, managed to make it out safely, but said her family were left suffering from effects linked to the terrifying blaze. She claims her two children suffered from eye infections and her husband endured lung issues from smoke inhalation.
Speaking about the ordeal, she said: "I woke up to the smell of smoke and when I opened my eyes the room was full of smoke, it was coming through the grids in the room and under the door. There was no fire alarm, no noise, it was all really quiet, nothing to alarm anyone. I woke my husband up and said we need to get out now.
"I grabbed my six-year-old who was sleeping next to us, we went to my eldest son's room which was next door to ours. It's difficult to get your bearings when it's so full of smoke. We came across the first staircase we'd normally use and that was just too full of smoke, you couldn't see the bottom of it.
"At this point we were banging on doors, there were other people coming out, there was no staff at all, it was chaos. We found a staircase we could go down and got out of the building. It was really scary. The look on my kids' faces when we were trying to escape the building will never leave my memory. We could have died.
"It was freezing. We were just left, we waited outside and we could see the situation was getting worse, there were people on the balconies screaming for help. The smoke had a strange smell, it was a really chemical smell like burning plastic and we were all choking on it. There were people jumping between balconies because the smoke was so bad in their rooms."
The mum said she tried to contact EasyJet to find information about what to do but did not manage to get through to them. She added: "Someone came by and he said we need to go to the sister hotel, the next hotel along the road. It was like Chinese whispers, the guests were passing the message because no one was telling us anything. We all started walking to the sister hotel which was a mile and a half further on. That was hell because we were all barefoot, carrying the children, and the roads were awful.
"The next day we were told the fire started in the boiling room and that there were no fatalities. We were allowed to go back to the hotel to get our stuff. We went into the building and the state of it was horrific. We managed to get out passports, but most of the stuff wasn't worth taking. You could tell the flames hadn't reached the room but the smoke had been terrible."
The mum continued: "All five of us were on medication for the remainder of our time there. My husband was told he had [lung issues from smoke inhalation], the two children had an eye infection, I had severe headaches that wouldn't go away and my blood pressure was high.
"They originally offered us £1,000 in vouchers which I refused to accept so they came back with £1,600 in vouchers and I also refused. We got nothing. The holiday cost around £4,000 in total."
EasyJet said they had conducted an independent assessment and until hearing the outcome of a formal investigation by the relevant authorities, they will not be offering this property to their holidaymakers. An EasyJet spokesperson said: "We're really sorry to hear that Ms Wallace and her family were impacted by the fire at the hotel and we understand how distressing this must have been.
"Our team in destination, and our 24/7 On-Holiday Support team were in touch with Ms Wallace at the time to provide alternative hotel accommodation, medical care, and any further help needed.
"We're still in contact with Ms Wallace to offer our support, including providing an insurance letter to help with reimbursement of personal items lost and additional expenses, offering trauma support counselling, and a full refund of her holiday cost. The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our highest priority."
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