Wheelchair-Bound Victim, Final Embrace: Heartbreaking Scenes from Delhi Hotel Tragedy

Darwin, June 05: A woman was seated on a toilet seat. Beside her sat a man in a chair. Her lifeless head rested on his shoulder, while he held her tightly in his arms. It seemed as though they were comforting each other until their very last moments.

Perhaps they had locked themselves inside the bathroom seeking refuge from the raging flames. But in a cruel twist of fate, they died while desperately waiting to be rescued.

On Wednesday morning, following a devastating fire at the Flourish Stay BnB hotel in India’s capital, Delhi, the bodies of the man and woman were recovered from a locked bathroom. At least 21 people, including 12 foreign nationals, were killed in the tragic blaze.

One of the local residents who helped evacuate trapped guests, Mohammad Shoaib, said, “They did not die from burns. They died from smoke inhalation.”

For Shoaib, it was the final rescue attempt of the operation. Recalling the moment, he said, “We reached the ground floor and found a bathroom locked from the inside. After breaking down the door, we found the couple embracing each other. By then, they were already dead.”

After removing the two bodies, Shoaib said he had to step outside the bathroom for a minute to gather the courage to recover two more victims.

“The woman was sitting on the toilet, and the man sitting beside her was holding her tightly. They had probably locked themselves in the bathroom to escape the fire. Their bodies had turned black from the smoke,” he said.

Rescuers attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to revive them, but their efforts were unsuccessful.

Ordinary citizens, including Mohammad Shoaib, Mohammad Afzal Khan, Wasim Raja, Ashraf Khan, and Amir Khan, assisted Delhi Police and the fire service during the rescue operation.

In another room, rescuers found a couple sitting in the corner of a bed, completely burned to death. Ashraf Khan, a healthcare worker at Max Hospital, said, “The scenes inside were extremely heartbreaking.”

Rescuers entered the building by cutting through the basement shutter. Ashraf recalled, “As soon as we entered the basement, we found the first body near the reception area. It was a young woman, around 20 to 25 years old, whose body had been completely charred and hardened.”

“Just a few steps away, we found a man dead in a wheelchair, badly burned. After that, I found three foreign nationals unconscious and administered CPR to them.”

According to rescuers, the fire was most intense in the basement and ground floor. Nearly eight burned bodies were recovered from the basement alone.

Another rescuer, Mohammad Afzal, said the hotel’s main staircase was located in the center of the building and there was no emergency exit route.

As soon as the flames were brought under control, the young rescuers rushed inside without waiting for the smoke to clear.

Ashraf said, “Neither we nor the local police had any protective equipment. By the time we reached the second floor, it felt as though we ourselves might die. The entire building was dark with smoke, and the floor tiles were cracking and lifting. While carrying people out on bedsheets, our feet were cut by the broken tiles and were bleeding.”

While rescue efforts continued inside the building, local residents outside also stepped in to help. Many smashed windowpanes and encouraged trapped guests to jump to safety.

Riazuddin Mansuri and his son Arman laid out around 20 to 22 mattresses beneath the burning building to cushion those who jumped from above. In the process of helping others, Riazuddin suffered losses of nearly 200,000 Indian rupees.

The hotel primarily accommodated foreign nationals who had come to receive treatment at Max Super Specialty Hospital in South Delhi. Although regulations allowed only six rooms, hotel management had reportedly constructed 25 rooms in the building.

The basement had also been converted into guest accommodation, despite lacking proper ventilation and adequate windows.

The fire reportedly originated in the basement. Several sources told NDTV on Thursday that a short circuit was believed to have caused the blaze. Most guests were asleep when the fire broke out at around 8:30 a.m.

Firefighters later brought the blaze under control, and at least 58 people were rescued and taken to the nearby Max Hospital for treatment.