As flames tore through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey, friends Esra Karakisa and Halime Cetin stood helpless, paralyzed by the horror unfolding before them: people leaning out of smoke-filled rooms pleading for help and others making the harrowing decision to leap out.

A fire raged through a 12-storey hotel in the northwestern Turkish province of Bolu, killing at least 76 people. Officials say at least two of them died after jumping from the building to escape the flames.