A trip to visit a hospitalised grandfather ended in a catastrophe on Wednesday when eight members of a Gurugram family perished in a devastating fire at the Flourish Stay hotel in the Hauz Rani area of Malviya Nagar, South Delhi, according to NDTV.
The victims included Vivek Agarwal, a chartered accountant from Sector 46 in Gurugram, his wife Tarjani Aggarwal, their two daughters Jivisha and Varya, and four other relatives.
The family had travelled to Delhi to visit Vivek's father, Radhe Shyam Agarwal, who is currently undergoing treatment at Max Hospital, NDTV reported.
In a cruel twist of fate, the family was having breakfast in the hotel's restaurant when the fire broke out, leaving them with little time to escape. The only surviving member of the immediate family is Vivek's 80-year-old father, who remains hospitalised.
Back in Gurugram, the family's home in Sector 46 stood empty Wednesday, with the entire locality in grief, NDTV reported.
The fire broke out at approximately 8:30 a.m. and tore rapidly through the narrow five-storey building, killing at least 21 people in total — including foreign nationals — and injuring dozens more. Around 40 guests were reportedly on the premises when the blaze erupted, most of them still asleep.
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Structural and regulatory failures appear to have turned the fire deadly. Delhi Police told NDTV the building had only a single entry and exit point, with permanently sealed windows and a sensor-operated main door — leaving trapped guests with virtually no means of escape.
Further, NDTV reported that the hotel was licensed under the Delhi government's Bed and Breakfast scheme, which permits a maximum of six rooms. At the time of the fire, Flourish Stay was allegedly operating 25 rooms, including some in the basement — more than four times the legal limit.
The owner of the building Lavkesh Bajaj has been detained in the matter, police said.
Authorities have said the remains of the victims will only be released after DNA samples are collected.
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