A silent grief hung in the air as the residence of chartered accountant Vivek Agarwal in Gurugram lay deserted on Wednesday, June 3. Almost the entire family of Vivek Agarwal was wiped out in the Malviya Nagar restaurant fire, that claimed as many as 21 lives, leaving the capital city shocked and heartbroken.
Vivek Agarwal and his family members were staying at Flourish Stay B&B in Malviya Nagar as his father was undergoing treatment at Max Hospital. The family was having breakfast when the fire broke out.
Vivek's mother, wife, two daughters, maternal uncle, aunt and another uncle were present at the time of the incident. Vivek's daughter Jivisa, the youngest among the victims, had returned from Bangalore a day earlier to visit her grandfather at the hospital.
The only surviving member in their family now is Vivek's ailing father, Radhe Shyam.
The blaze started around 8.30 am and quickly spread through the five-floor narrow building that had only one entry-exit point, permanently sealed windows and a sensor-operated main door, officials said. Many foreigners who were staying at the B&B were killed in the fire.
At least 58 people were rescued and rushed to hospitals.
Vivek Agarwal's house in Gurugram is now occupied by only a tenant.
His neighbour said, “Vivek was a CA working with a private company while his wife ran an NGO. We have been told that the bodies will arrive tomorrow after post-mortem. We are all shocked.”
“None of us can believe that the entire family got killed in the fire. Vivek was a good-natured man, and the family was on friendly terms with everyone in the neighbourhood,” Dhull, another neighbour, said.
Puneet Gupta, a relative of Vivek, said he made a call to him in the middle of the fire and said "brother, maybe we won't survive".
"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, “By the time we reached there, they were all dead.”
Vivek's relatives questioned the hotel's safety measures, saying that although the site was located on the main road, access to it was through a narrow, congested lane, and that the place lacked proper fire-safety infrastructure.
"The lane is 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 after receiving a call from a cousin, adding that they had never imagined something like this could happen.
"We were unable to recognise them just by looking at their pictures. Everyone was severely burnt," the relative said.
(With agency inputs)
