‘They shut the hotel and left’: Panic grips Delhi’s Hauz Rani after deadly fire

In the aftermath of the tragedy, more than 20 neighbouring hotels and bed and breakfast facilities shut their doors, amid fears of a crackdown by authorities. Guests, many of them medical tourists seeking treatment at the nearby Max Hospital, were left stranded.

Alton and his family were among them. The 39-year-old Congolese national came to India last week for a checkup at Max Hospital. His brother, Grace, 35, had come to meet him the day before yesterday and checked into Flourish Stays. 

“He was in the hotel when the fire broke out. He jumped from the third floor on a pile of mattresses to save himself,” said Alton.

When he went to his hotel on Thursday morning — the Flourish Inn, just about 300 metres from Flourish BnB — accompanied by his three children and brother, he found it locked from the inside, with chains put around the handles of the glass entrance door. 

“All my stuff is inside. My brother already lost all his luggage to the fire. This is crazy,” he said.

Just then, a man opened the lock from inside. Alton’s brother went in and was directed by the man to go and take the luggage. When Alton tried to follow, he was rebuffed. “Only one, stay back. Stay back,” the man told him.

Wasif Ahmed, 19, who runs a pet shop in the same building as OYO City Palace, a few metres from the gutted Flourish B&B, said the owner of the hotel shut operations and left shortly after the fire.

“The owner, panic-stricken, shut down the hotel and left yesterday after the fire,’ Ahmed said. “They don’t have the required permits. In fact, none of the hotels in the area have them,” he claimed.

Bilon Mukasa from Uganda, in her early 30s, paced through Malviya Nagar, desperately seeking help to move her belongings from a room in a hotel located behind the site of the fire.

With the only access route sealed off and cycle-rickshaw pullers reluctant to help in the aftermath of the blaze, she said she had been left stranded. Asked about the tragedy, she responded angrily: “So what? People die every day. That doesn’t mean we stop working. We’ve all lost someone in our lives…”