3 members of family from Kerala among 17 victims in hotel fire tragedy

At 3.30 am on Tuesday, Somshekhar and his family were preparing to leave their hotel for Haridwar. Suddenly, the power went out and their rooms plunged into darkness. Before they could understand what had happened, plumes of thick smoke ran through their floor at the Arpit Palace hotel and a foul smell triggered panic.

Besides Somshekhar, 12 persons were in the group staying at the hotel in central Delhi, where a massive fire killed 17 people, including a child, on Tuesday.

Somshekhar said his sister Jayashree (53), mother Naliniamma (84) and brother Vidhyasagar (59) died in the early-morning fire.

The family had come from Ernakulam district in Kerala to attend a wedding in Ghaziabad on February 8.

"We had come to attend the wedding of a relative in Ghaziabad. We were planning to go to Haridwar today," the 57-year-old said.

"We were ready to leave when there was a sudden power cut. They switched on the generator and there was a heavy smoke and a foul smell. My sister first spotted the smoke and informed us. The entire corridor was full of smoke and the smell," Somshekhar said.

His mother and brother were with his sister at that time and Somshekhar had rushed to his room to open the windows to allow the smoke to pass and find a possible exit route.

"Yesterday, we went to Vrindavan and returned late at night. We had also planned to visit Amritsar and leave for Kerala on the 15th," he said.

Vijayamma, a relative of Somshekhar, said, "I met the entire family at the wedding. I was meeting Naliniamma after about three years. She was finding it difficult to cope with the winters here. I took her to a room after the wedding. I did not know that I would be seeing her the last time."
Bhupendra Rajput, an eyewitness who assisted in the rescue operations, said, "We were in my room at a hotel nearby when the incident took place. People were shouting and we immediately rushed to the spot."
Neelam Krishnamoorthy, whose two young children were among the 59 people who were killed in a fire accident at the Uphaar cinema hall here in 1997, said, "No lessons have been learnt from the Uphaar tragedy."