A trip to the Attari border with her family will now remain an unfulfilled dream for Nalini (83) and her children — Jayshree (53) and Vidya Sagar (55) — who were among the 17 people who died in Hotel Arpit Palace, Karol Bagh fire on Tuesday morning.
A call about the fire was received at 4.35 a.m. and 24 fire tenders were rushed to the spot, a senior officer from the Delhi Fire Service (DFS) said.
Thirteen people were brought dead to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital while four others were taken to two other hospitals in the city.
According to a relative, Rajshekharan, 13 people from the same family had come to Delhi for a family wedding on February 8. “They also went to neighbouring areas of Delhi and were scheduled to go to Wagah border today at 5.30 a.m. on a tour bus,” he said.
“We believe that the mother was in the toilet when the electricity went off and when the three came out to check hearing the chaos, they realised that something was amiss. The survivors told us the three of them were staying on the second floor but could not manage to escape,” he said.
They said wooden panelling in the corridors of the hotel contributed to the quick spread of the fire. Other members of the family were staying in other hotels in the same area. A short circuit is suspected to be the cause of the fire that broke out here.
Doctors said the three bodies were charred and that most deaths took place due to suffocation.
The family was identified by their relatives from the jewellery that the victims were wearing. “The bodies will now be taken back to Kerala for the last rites,” said Mr. Rajshekharan.