For victims of Delhi blaze, hopes of healing turned into grief

FOr the 21 people who died, the discharge at an illegal bed-and-breakfast in s new delhi’s Hauz ranee, was a cruel twine of fate. With the hotel in close proximity to a well-known private hospital, many of the victims were either tending to patients or patients themselves.Habib Abid (50), his son Haidar, and brother-in law Ali Amer Mosa (29) had been staying on the fifth floor of the hotel for a week as the 19-year-old received his treatment for a brain tumour at Max Hospital, Saket, just across the road.The Iraqi national narrowly escaped the blaze, but lost his brother-in-law. “As the fire started spreading rapidly through the upper floors, it filled the corridors with dense smoke, reducing visibility. I escaped as some of the neighbours broke the window of our room and put stairs for me. But, Mosa had run out of the room, looking for another way. He took the stairs, but was not able to escape,” Abid told HT at the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences mortuary on Sri Aurobindo Marg on Thursday.According to the hospital’s forensic team, they received 13 bodies since the incident. “Of these, the autopsies have been completed for six. The rest of the cases will be done by June 5, when five more bodies will also be shifted from Max Hospital,” said an official.According to the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) and Delhi Police, at least 12 foreign nationals had been killed. This included three of a family from Kyrgyzstan. Nargisa Khan (53), who came to Delhi for a liver transplant and were accompanied by her grandmother Nakhpirat Khan (76) and son, Humayun (26).Also Read| Canada expresses condolences over Delhi fire“Nargisa had just been discharged on Saturday and they were going to leave India on June 8,” said Guzal, a relative. But a few hours was all it took for everything to change. “She called me in a panicked voice at around 8:53am on Wednesday to tell me that the hotel was on fire and they were trying to escape. In a few minutes, they stopped answering our calls.” The primary postmortem report showed that all three died of burn inhalations.Esther, a 53-year-old from Nigeria, had also just completed treatment for her tumour — on May 18. She and her son Davic (30) were staying back for some further tests, according to embassy officials.61-year-old Janjay n Roland, a Liberian national, was staying at the hotel as her husband received his treatment at Max, her niece Maria told HT.The fire occurred just before she was going to meet her aunt after not seeing her for two years. “I am a student in Dehradun and, now that she was in India, we were finally going to meet this week, but instead I’m the one who had to identify her body, since her husband is still in the hospital,” she said.A current of anger was palpable among those who had arrived to collect the bodies. They blamed the lax implementation of safety norms and building regulations for the deaths.Of the nine Indians who died, eight were from the same family. Police identified the victims as Vivek Aggarwal (45); wife Tarjani (43); their daughters Jivisha (20) and Varya (18). Vivek’s mother Premlata, 71; uncle Ashok; aunt Kamla Goyal and her husband, Jhaveri Lal Goyal, who had come from Rajasthan’s Ajmer, were also killed.Also Read| Entire family destroyed within few hours, say grief-stricken relatives after losing 8 to Delhi fireThey had all come to meet Vivek’s 77-year-old father, Radhe Shyam Aggarwal, who was critically ill and, doctors at Max had told them, may not survive. “Vivek was the youngest among my cousins. I still cannot believe that this has happened. He had called me while he was trapped inside the building. He was shouting for help, asking us to call the fire brigade, and was telling us that he couldn’t breathe. The rescue officers took around 25 minutes to break open the door to the basement, where he was,” said 53-year-old Deepak Aggarwal.Back in Gurugram, the three-storey residence in Sector-46, built with the hopes and dreams of Vivek and his family was filled with the wails of their relatives as their bodies were cremated on Thursday.“Vivek told his cousin over the phone that the electronic lock on the basement gate was not functioning and was pleading to be saved,” said Santosh Bansal, Tarjani’s mother.Family members searched dozens of hospitals for hours to find Tarjani, her two daughters, and two other family members. “We heard that three women had jumped and could not be traced. I thought it was Tarjani and my two granddaughters, but it turned out that they were the one who perished,” she said, trying to hold back her tears.In the end, Tarjani’s body, charred beyond recognition, was identified by her earrings. “My sons didn’t allow me to see her, even for the last time,” her mother added.