The fire coincided with school holidays when many families from nearby Istanbul and Ankara head to the Bolu mountains to ski.

Witnesses have described standing helplessly and paralyzed by the horror of people screaming for help or jumping out of windows as flames tore through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort.

Twenty children were among the 76 fatal victims of a fire that spread through a Turkish ski resort in the early morning hours of Jan. 21, according to local media. The fire took place at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya in northwestern Turkish province of Bolu.