She sat on a toilet seat. Beside her was a man on a chair. She rested her head on his shoulder as he held her in an embrace. They died in each other's arms, waiting to be rescued.
A man and a woman were found dead in a locked washroom of the Delhi hotel - Flourish Stay BnB - where a massive fire broke out on Wednesday morning, killing 21, including 12 foreign nationals.
"They did not die of fire. They died of smoke," said Mohammad Shoaib, one of the many who stepped up to help evacuate guests from the burning building.
For Shoaib, this was the last rescue.
"We went to the ground floor and spotted a washroom locked from inside. When we broke open, we found a couple locked in an embrace. They had died."
Shoaib recalled stepping out of the toilet for a minute to gather courage to pull out two more bodies.
"The woman was seated on a pot, while the man was sitting on a chair next to her, holding her tightly. They appeared to have locked themselves in, hoping to escape the fire. We found them locked in a hug."
Shoaib, along with other rescuers, gave Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to the man and the woman, hoping to breathe life into them
"They managed to escape the fire but probably died of suffocation due to smoke inhalation. Their bodies had turned black due to smoke."
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Mohammad Shoaib, Mohammad Afzal Khan, Wasim Raja, Ashraf Khan and Aamir Khan are among those who assisted Delhi Police and firefighters in the rescue operation.
A short circuit is said to have caused fire at Flourish Stay BnB in Delhi's Malviya Nagar.
In another room, they found a couple sitting at the edge of a bed. Both had been burnt to death.
"The scenes inside were horrific," said Ashraf Khan, a healthcare worker at Max Hospital.
The rescuers entered the building from the basement. They claim to have cut the shutter to gain access to the hotel.
"When I entered the basement, I found the first body, completely charred, near the reception. It was of a girl, probably in her mid-20s, with her hands and legs stiff. She was declared dead on the spot. A few steps from there, I found a man on a wheelchair, who was also burnt to death. When I moved ahead, I found three foreign nationals who were unconscious and gave them CPR," recalls Ashraf.
According to the rescuers, the basement and the ground floor took the brunt of the fire.
"Around eight people were found charred in the basement," Shoaib said.
Mohammad Afzal, another rescuer, claimed the main staircase to the upper floors was in the centre of the hotel and there was no emergency exit.
The men allegedly did not wait for the smoke to clear. They entered as soon as the fire was under control.
"Neither we nor the local police personnel had any safety equipment. We just jumped into rescue. By the time we reached the second floor of the hotel building, it felt like we would die. The building was full of smoke, and the floor tiles had come off. As we carried people on bedsheets and walked on the broken floor, our feet were cut," Ashraf said.
A viral video shows a foreign national standing on the roof of a burning five-storey building, clutching a pole, looking for a way down.
While the men carried out the rescue operation inside the building, good Samaritans were running an evacuation operation from outside also. Locals broke the windows from outside and encouraged trapped guests to jump out of the rooms.
Riyazuddin Mansuri and his son, Armaan, spread around 20-22 mattresses on the ground outside the burning building, creating a cushion that allowed trapped guests to jump to safety.
Riyazuddin suffered a loss of Rs 2 lakh "on the grounds of humanity."
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Delhi Hotel Fire: All You Need To Know
The fire broke out at around 8:30 am in the basement of the B&B and subsequently spread to the upper floors. A short circuit is said to have caused it, sources told NDTV on Thursday.
Most of the guests were asleep when the blaze erupted. A total of 17 fire tenders were deployed to bring the fire under control and at least 58 people were rescued and rushed to nearby Max Hospital.
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As part of the investigation, the police are probing if the B&B complied with the safety norms. The initial probe has found that the building had only a single entry and exit point, lacked a fire no objection certificate (NOC), and was operating 25 rooms while it had the permission for just six rooms. Additionally, the windows were sealed, the main door was sensor-operated.
The hotel owner, Lavkesh Bajaj, was arrested on Wednesday, hours after the blaze engulfed the building. Bajaj, during interrogation, said that he drove past his burning hotel 'out of fear.'
