He lost his daughter and wife in the Grand Kartal Hotel fire! The grieving father recounted what happened that night

Dr. Lecturer Kübra Tonguç Altın and her daughter Alya Altın, who lost their lives in the fire at the Bolu Grand Kartal Hotel, were laid to rest in their father's hometown of Soma, Manisa.

FATHER SURVIVED THE FIRE WITH INJURIES

Hilmi Altın, the father of the family who survived the fire with injuries, struggled to stand during the funeral, with one hand on his daughter's coffin and the other on his wife's.

RECOUNTED THE TERRIFYING MOMENTS

The Altın family, who lived in İzmir, suffered a great tragedy after a fire broke out at the hotel where they had gone for a vacation. Father Hilmi Altın, who lost his wife and daughter in the fire, shared a note on his social media account regarding what he experienced. Altın stated, "On the day of the incident, when I opened my eyes to my wife Kübra's words, 'Hilmi, get up, there is a fire, catch up to us!', I saw my wife and daughter running out of the room. When I got dressed and left the room (with an estimated 30-50 second difference), I encountered very dense, toxic smoke, and it was impossible to breathe. Although I tried the stairs a few times, I could not find them. Thinking that my wife and child's early action helped them escape, I was wandering back and forth in despair on the 8th floor when I ran into our friends in the hallway. Together with them, we took shelter in the room of our other friends, the Yalçın family. While a plan was being made to descend using bedsheets, I wanted to go after my wife and child one more time.

Wrapping a wet towel around my face, I left my friends' room again. However, the smoke was much worse, and there was zero visibility. Still, I searched for the stairs again but failed. When I walked randomly, escaping the smoke, I saw a large group trying to break a window in an area with low visibility at the end of the hallway that allowed for breathing. I immediately joined them, and we took shelter in a room together. As far as I remember, there were 13 of us. Women and children were in the majority. We were in incredible harmony as those in the room, and everyone started to implement a plan to lower the children first, then the women, and finally the men. While our friends were tying the sheets very quickly, my eyes caught the mattresses. The mattresses were large, and the windows were quite small. When I asked if we could throw the mattresses, everyone gave their full strength without hesitation, and we quickly bent the mattresses and threw them down. Then, using the sheets, we lowered the children first, then the women onto the mattresses. One of the men, a friend, said, 'I will tie the sheets to a fixed place, you go, I will descend last.' I descended second to last. The sheet broke for the friend before me, and I was left with only a small piece of sheet. I let myself fall backward from the 8th-floor window onto the 5th-floor porch, falling toward the mattress. I think I fell on top of a friend who was trying to help there. When we both confirmed that we were okay, I ran to look for my wife and child. However, I searched and could not find them anywhere. Thinking that the mattress idea worked for us and could be useful to other people, I ran to the other hotel and asked the staff to urgently bring mattresses under the windows. Then we started throwing mattresses from the other hotel onto the porches. When the AFAD team grew in number, they took the survivors to the other hotel. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, this hotel took my wife Kübra and my daughter Alya from me. It is the most painful feeling in the world, impossible to describe," he said.

THEY HAD GONE FOR THE SEMESTER BREAK

Explaining that they went to Bolu as two families for a vacation, Hilmi Altın said, "When we went to that hotel for the first time, as two families, we wanted to fulfill the vacation desires of our children who had grown up together since they were in strollers, made university plans together, and grew up dreaming of living in the same house. However, we could not have known that they would walk to heaven together. My wife, who loved our daughter more than her own life, never left her little bird, whom she could never be separated from, even in her last breath. We lost my Atakan teacher and my little Derin from the Yalçın family, with whom we went together, along with my dear daughter Alya and my dear wife Kübra. Atakan's wife, our one and only Yaprak, and their daughter Defne were saved with difficulty and were granted back to their families and us. May God be pleased with everyone who ran for people at the cost of their own lives in that room and that hotel that day. It was a huge struggle for survival. However, this was not a misfortune! A massacre was committed in plain sight. We were literally told to 'choose your death' at that hotel." he expressed.

"I WILL FIGHT WITH ALL MY MIGHT"

Father Hilmi Altın concluded his emotional words as follows:

"God gave me a life and burdened me with the debt of my wife's and daughter's lives. As long as I have this life, I will fight with all my might to ensure that those responsible receive the punishment they deserve. At this point, I have no doubt that our state and our justice system will punish everyone who has even the slightest fault. May God give patience to everyone experiencing this pain. As for those who caused it, may they receive the punishments they deserve before the law. We are grateful to our friends from all over the world and our homeland who called and asked about us, supporting us during this process. May God be pleased with everyone who did not spare their prayers and suffered with us. I hope no one ever has to understand the valuable meaning of the word 'sequential death' through a similar pain again. I hope the pain experienced is the last one for us, and that suffering ends in our beautiful country."