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.

Turkey has detained nine people as part of an investigation into a fire that killed 76 people and injured dozens at a ski resort in the Bolu mountains, authorities said.

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