A tragic end: Malviya Nagar fire wipes out eight of family

“Brother, maybe we won’t survive”, were among the last words spoken by Vivek Agrawal before he died in the devastating fire in the Hauz Rani area of Malviya Nagar, his relative Puneet Gupta said.

Gupta lost eight family members in the incident, which claimed 21 lives on Wednesday.

Recounting his final conversation, Gupta said that Vivek, a chartered accountant from Gurugram Sector-46, called him in the midst of the fire.

“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, adding, “We rushed there immediately, but by the time we arrived, they were all dead.”

Eight members of Vivek Agarwal’s family had travelled to Delhi to visit his father, Radhe Shyam Agarwal, who had been undergoing treatment at Max Hospital in Saket for several days.

According to relatives, Vivek had booked two rooms in the Flourish Stay bed and breakfast, where the fire broke out.

Among those killed are Vivek Agrawal (48), his wife Tarjini Agrawal (47), mother Prem Lata Agrawal, daughters Jivisa and Variya Agrawal, maternal uncle and aunt, Ashok and Kamla Goel from Rajasthan’s Kishangarh, and another relative, Jhumri Lal Goel.

A relative said that Jivisa, the youngest among the victims, had returned from Bangalore a day earlier to visit her grandfather.

Relatives questioned the site’s safety measures, saying that although the site was located on the main road, access to it was through narrow, congested lanes and lacked proper fire-safety infrastructure.

“The lanes are extremely narrow, and there was no proper fire escape arrangement. We still don’t know what caused the fire,” Gupta said.

Another relative said they rushed to the Max Hospital in Saket after receiving a call from a cousin, adding that they had never imagined something like this could happen.

“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.

With the death of eight family members, the only survivor in the immediate family is Vivek’s ailing father, Radhe Shyam Agarwal.

The hospital was swarmed with grief-stricken relatives, friends and acquaintances, anxiously searching for information about their loved ones.

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Among them was a man searching for his 25-year-old friend Sujita, believed to be among those affected by the blaze.

He said police officials showed him photographs of victims for identification, but he could not find her among them. “Can’t recognise her, also her phone is not traceable,” he said.