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.

They included: A business school dean and his daughter. A 10-year-old competitive swimmer and her mother. Sixth- and ninth-grade siblings and their mother; the father survived. Brothers who were managers at an energy company, and one son each. An orthodontist, her husband and their two children. Two cooks who worked in the hotel.