New Delhi: What was meant to be a family visit to see an ailing father ended in unimaginable tragedy after eight members of a family were killed in the devastating fire that tore through a guest house in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar on Wednesday.
Among the victims was 48-year-old Vivek Agrawal, a chartered accountant from Gurugram. As flames engulfed the building, he made a desperate call to his relative Puneet Gupta.
“Brother, maybe we won’t survive,” were among the last words Vivek spoke before the call ended.
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Gupta recalled trying to help from afar. “I told him to wet a handkerchief and cover his face with it, but even that was of no help. Now he is gone,” he said. “We rushed there immediately, but by the time we arrived, they were all dead.”
The family had come to Delhi to visit Vivek’s father, Radhe Shyam Agarwal, who had been undergoing treatment at Max Hospital in Saket. Vivek had booked two rooms at the Flourish Stay bed and breakfast, where the fire broke out.
The victims included Vivek Agrawal, his wife Tarjini Agrawal, his mother Prem Lata Agrawal, daughters Jivisa and Variya Agrawal, his maternal uncle and aunt Ashok and Kamla Goel from Rajasthan’s Kishangarh, and another relative, Jhumri Lal Goel.
According to relatives, Jivisa, the youngest among the victims, had returned from Bengaluru just a day earlier to visit her grandfather.
The tragedy has left Radhe Shyam Agarwal as the only surviving member of his immediate family.
Relatives questioned the safety standards at the guest house. They said that while the property was located on the main road, access was through narrow and congested lanes with no proper fire-safety arrangements.
“The lanes are extremely narrow, and there was no proper fire escape arrangement. We still don’t know what caused the fire,” Gupta said.
The grief was overwhelming at the hospital, where relatives gathered in search of information about their loved ones.
One family member described the painful task of identifying the victims. “We are unable to recognise them just by looking at pictures. Everyone is severely burnt,” (Photo se pehchaan me nahi aa rha koi, sab jale hue hain),” the relative said.
Elsewhere, another man searched desperately for his 25-year-old friend Sujita, fearing she may have been among those affected. He said police showed him photographs of victims for identification, but he could not find her.
“Can’t recognise her, also her phone is not traceable,” he said.
The Malviya Nagar fire claimed 21 lives, but for one family, it wiped out almost an entire generation in a matter of minutes.
(With inputs from PTI)