'Even a small sound scares us': Fear, grief linger in Malviya Nagar day after hotel blaze kills 21

New Delhi: A charred smell in the air, dangling electricity wires, eerie silence in the narrow lane and haunting memories of desperate cries for help, residents of south Delhi's Malviya Nagar remained gripped by fear and trauma on Thursday, June 04, a day after a devastating hotel fire claimed 21 lives.

The lane where the blaze tore through the Flourish Stay Bed and Breakfast on Wednesday morning bore signs of the tragedy that unfolded hours earlier.

With police barricades blocking access and investigators combing through the gutted structure, residents struggled to come to terms with what they had witnessed.

For many, sleep remained elusive.

A shopkeeper who runs a small general store barely 10 metres from the hotel said the scenes he witnessed would remain etched in his memory forever.

"Jaley hue log, building se jump karte hue log, bodies dekh kar poori raat neend nahi aayi. Choti si awaz se bhi darr lag raha tha.

(Charred bodies, people jumping off the building... I couldn't sleep all night after looking at the bodies. Even a tiny sound now scares me)," he said, his voice trembling.

Another resident, Kanhaiya, said the tragedy had traumatised not only the families who lost loved ones but also those living in the neighbourhood.

"Children are asking what happened here. My wife could not sleep throughout the night," he said, adding that the screams and cries of trapped guests continue to ring in the ears of residents.

"Whenever we pass through this street, these memories will come back. We can never forget those cries," he said.

The area around the hotel remained cordoned off on Thursday as teams from Delhi Police, the crime branch and forensic experts examined the site.

Residents gathered near barricades, exchanging accounts of the horrific morning while occasionally glancing towards the blackened building.

A police officer said the area had been sealed as a precautionary measure and to facilitate structural assessment and evidence collection.

Investigators are trying to reconstruct the sequence of events that led to one of the deadliest fire tragedies in the national capital in recent years. Police are questioning residents, shopkeepers, hotel employees and other witnesses as part of the probe.

The police have arrested hotel owner Lavkesh Bajaj and booked him under charges including culpable homicide not amounting to murder. During questioning, Bajaj reportedly told investigators that he had acquired the building in 2022 and was operating a hotel-cum-guest house there.

Police are verifying his claims regarding permissions and licences obtained for the premises.

Investigators are also searching for hotel manager Jai Mishra, who, according to the police, was handling the day-to-day operations of the establishment.

Police said the hotel allegedly had permission for only six rooms but was operating around 25 rooms.

As investigators piece together what went wrong, residents remain haunted by memories of a morning they say changed the neighbourhood forever.

For many in Malviya Nagar, the fire may have been extinguished, but the fear it left behind continues to smoulder.