Kartalkaya, Turkey — As flames tore through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey, friends Esra Karakisa and Halime Cetin stood 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.

Turkish authorities have made multiple arrests following Tuesday’s deadly fire at a ski resort in the Bolu mountains, Al Jazeera reported.

Some survivors have said they did not hear an alarm and experts have told the BBC they would not have expected such a high death toll in a hotel where fire protection systems were