As thick smoke billowed through a five-storey bed-and-breakfast hotel in Delhi’s Hauz Rani area on Wednesday morning, local residents sprang into action, helping rescue trapped guests even before firefighters reached the scene.
The fire, reported around 8:30 a.m., quickly spread across three floors of the building, leaving several occupants stranded amid heavy smoke and confusion. According to residents, the hotel had only a single entry-exit point and lacked an emergency staircase, making evacuation extremely difficult.
Sixty-one-year-old Riyazuddin, who runs a roadside shop opposite the hotel, immediately pulled mattresses from his shed and spread them beneath the windows to cushion those forced to jump from the building. Soon, desperate guests began leaping from windows to escape the smoke and flames. Some rooms had no windows at all, while others were reportedly sealed shut.
“I laid out around 15 mattresses. One man who jumped from the second floor suffered a broken leg. The situation was incredibly tense,” Riyazuddin recalled.
Another local resident, 40-year-old Mohammed Israr Khan, rushed to the scene after receiving a call from his brother around 8:40 a.m. Along with several others, including Wasim, Amir, Shahrukh, Afzal, Hazi and Anish, he helped pull victims from the building and transport them to waiting ambulances.
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The neighbourhood, located close to Max Hospital, is home to numerous hotels that accommodate patients and their families visiting Delhi for medical treatment. Residents said many of the guests were foreign nationals travelling on medical visas.
“When we entered the building alongside police and rescue teams, visibility was almost zero. There was only smoke, screams and cries coming from every floor,” Khan said. “Many people were trapped in the basement. Some victims had severe burn injuries, but we had no time to hesitate. Every second mattered.”
Khan said he performed CPR on eight people during the rescue operation. “I vomited several times. It was a horrifying scene. Around five of the people we brought out had already died,” he said.
One moment, in particular, stayed with him. While assisting a victim, the person’s phone rang. “It was the victim’s mother asking about her child. I couldn’t bring myself to answer and handed the phone to the police. I didn’t want to be the one delivering such devastating news,” he said.
Rescuers said the building’s design — with only one access point and limited escape routes — severely hampered rescue efforts. Several volunteers and police personnel reportedly suffered from smoke inhalation during the operation.
Wasim Raja, another resident who joined the rescue effort, said he found two women unconscious inside a bathroom where they had locked themselves in an attempt to escape the smoke.
“I carried both of them out on a mattress by myself. Most of the guests staying there were already unwell and had come to Delhi for medical treatment,” he said.
A local pharmacist, whose shop has operated in the area for nearly three decades, recalled meeting some of the victims just a day earlier. “A mother and her child bought medicines from me yesterday. They were supposed to leave for Agra today. I still don’t know if they survived,” he said.
Even after the fire was brought under control, anxiety lingered across the neighbourhood. The area is lined with similar multi-storey hotels in narrow lanes crowded with overhead electrical wires. Many guests staying in nearby lodges were seen checking out, concerned about the safety of buildings that often have only one staircase and limited fire-safety measures.
Among them was a man who flew in from Lucknow after hearing news of the blaze. “My father is staying in this area for treatment and cannot speak. I was scheduled to arrive tomorrow, but as soon as I heard the hotel’s name, which sounded similar to where he is staying, I took the first available flight to Delhi,” he said.
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