Fire coursed through a hotel on Wednesday in a dense neighborhood in New Delhi, killing at least 21 people and injuring dozens more.
The Delhi fire service reported that eight fire engines responded to a call received at 8:48 a.m. local time at the Flourish Stay B&B in Malviya Nagar, in the southern part of the capital.
They said firefighters were joined by the police and other emergency medical workers. More than 40 people were rescued. The fire was extinguished and survivors were sent to nearby hospitals. The cause of the fire was unknown.
Istkhar Ahmad, 49, a driver who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years, was there to witness the fire at 8:30 a.m. He said the fire brigades took half an hour to respond.
“I saw a small fire in the guesthouse, it looked like it started in the kitchen,” he said. “Then we saw people upstairs crying, trying to break their windows.”
By the time rescue workers arrived, Mr. Ahmad said, fire had engulfed the whole building. He and other bystanders tried arranging bedding and quilts below the building, to break the fall of those who managed to jump: about 10 or 12, he estimated. He said that most of them were Nigerians.
There are several private hospitals on major streets around the tightly packed neighborhood, and many of their patients came from other countries. India calls them medical tourists. Afghans, Uzbeks and Africans travel to India for affordable treatments unavailable at home.
A series of accidents earlier this year had called attention to unsafe housing conditions in India’s capital. On May 30, a building collapsed less than a mile away from Wednesday’s fire, killing six people.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
