As flames tore through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey, friends Esra Karakisa and Halime Cetin watched helplessly as the horror unfolded before them. Some people were leaning out of smoke-filled rooms pleading for help,

Witnesses say guests at a ski resort hotel in Turkey tried to escape a deadly fire with ropes and sheets hung from windows.

Some had returned to the hotel year after year. Their deaths — amid dozens of others at the hotel — have stirred grief and outrage.