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

Desperate guests at a Turkish ski resort that exploded into flames tried to escape using bedsheets as ropes hanging from the windows, while others died after trying to jump to safety.

The 12-story Grand Kartal hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province was completely destroyed by a massive fire overnight, with 234 guests staying there at the time of the fire

The fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel in Kartalya, in the Koroglu mountains in Bolu province, on Tuesday left at least 76 people and 51 injured.

A huge fire killed at least 76 people as it ripped through a hotel at a popular ski resort in northern Turkey. The blaze at the Grand Kartal Hotel in Karta

The fire broke out at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya early on the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 21.

Officials in Turkey say that a fire has raged through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in the northwestern part of the country during a school holiday, killing at least 76 people.