NEW DELHI: The fire tragedy at Flourish Stay B&B in Hauz Rani made heroes out of ordinary residents. Arman, who runs a mattresses shop in front of the hotel, was making his morning tea when someone told him about the fire. As he saw thick smoke billowing from the building, he dropped everything and rushed towards the scene, joining scores of locals who had gathered to help those trapped inside.
He immediately opened his shop, took out mattresses that he had stocked for sale and placed them on the ground outside the burning structure with the help of other locals. “Our shop has been here for nearly 40 years. I have only recently started managing it. Before that, my father used to run the business,” Arman said.
When he reached the spot, the blaze was already raging. The fire was so intense that no one could enter the building, and those trapped inside were unable to get out. People on the upper floors were shouting for help and looking for a way to escape. “Realising that they might have to jump, I quickly brought out the mattresses from my shop and spread them across the ground at different spots in square shape below the building,” he said.
Arman had 20 to 22 mattresses at his shop, which he placed on the ground. “About seven to eight people, including a young girl, jumped from the upper floors on the mattresses. Thankfully, all of them were saved, though some sustained minor injuries,” he said. He added that fire was particularly severe on the ground floor, but people were trapped on the upper storeys.
He also claimed that he has never witnessed anything like this in all his years here. He described it as a horrifying scene. “Had the fire spread any further or the response been delayed, my shop, located directly opposite the hotel, might also have been destroyed,” he said. The locals also claimed that the sensor-operated entrance gate at the B&B facility stopped working after the fire broke out.
