AKP chairman who lost 8 family members in fire recounts the painful day!

Relatives of AKP Bolu Provincial Chair Suat Güner lost their lives in the fire that broke out at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the Bolu Kartalkaya Ski Center.

It was reported that the fire started in the early morning hours and that Suat Güner's cousin Zehra Sena Gültekin, her husband Bilal, their children Muhammet Selim, Yusuf Sinanettin, and Bekir Sadık Gültekin, as well as Bilal Gültekin's siblings Enes and Rümeysa Gültekin, lost their lives.

Güner recounted that dark night. Here are the details...

Stating that he set off for Kartalkaya after a phone call from his uncle and that his cousin called him via video chat while he was on the road to ask for help, Güner said, "I woke up to my uncle's phone call around 03:37. I tried to get there as fast as I could. It didn't take me 5 minutes to leave the house. I immediately called Sena, Bilal, Enes, and Rümeysa in a hurry. I spoke with Sena for a long time. I said, 'Try to get out.' She said, 'There is a lot of smoke coming from the hallway, we can't get out of the room.' I said, 'Open the window.' She said, 'Brother, there is no window, it's already burning, that entire facade is burning,' and she even video-called me because I didn't believe her.

Sena had also video-called her mother, my aunt. You couldn't see anything anyway, the room was full of dust and smoke. They had taken shelter in a corner, that's how we found them. We found them very late and with great difficulty. These are indescribable pains. We talked on the phone for about 15 minutes.

We spoke in pieces 10-11 times with Sena. Our last conversation was at 04:06. I was there around 04:20. They were staying in room 1108 on the 11th floor, on the facade engulfed by the fire, the back facade. The fire started at very early hours," he said.

'NONE OF THEM WERE ANSWERING THE PHONE WHEN I CALLED'

Suat Güner stated that when they reached the area, he called his cousin again but could not reach her, saying, "Even though she told me the room number and the floor, I forgot them. I entered the hotel in a state of panic, but there was a lot of smoke. There was no fire where we entered the hotel, just smoke. Someone took me outside, I tried to go upstairs. In a state of panic, you don't know what to do... You can't reach them by phone, not even 10 minutes had passed since our last conversation. None of them were answering the phone when I called," he expressed.

Expressing his belief that those staying at the hotel could have had enough time to get out, Güner continued as follows:

"There is negligence, deficiencies, mistakes, things that were not implemented, and things that were not done despite being told, but they could have been woken up. There were also those who tried to wake people up in a state of panic. They came to me and said, 'We are hotel staff, we tried to wake people up as much as we could reach.' A member of parliament sounded his car alarm to wake people up."

'THE FIRE STARTED EARLIER THAN THE STATED TIME'

Stating that it was said the fire started earlier than the stated time, Güner continued:

"I don't know what time it was. A photo came to me. I look at that photo and say, 'have a conscience.' Okay, we have our pain, but at the time the photo was taken, there was only a fire in the restaurant, the building was not burning. Wake them up, wake them up at that hour. Whatever is necessary, are you going to sound the alarm, are you going to shout, are you going to go floor by floor, you have to wake the people up."

'WILL THE LIVES WE LOST COME BACK?'

Emphasizing that nothing can soothe the pain they are experiencing, Güner asked the questions, "After the judiciary makes its decision, after it reveals those who were negligent regarding the matter, what does it matter if they are given life imprisonment, what does it matter if they rot in dungeons? Will the lives we lost come back?"