21 Dead, Mostly Foreign Nationals, as Fire Rips Through Unlicensed Six-Storey Delhi Hotel

Guests leapt from upper floors to escape the blaze at Flourish Stay guesthouse in Malviya Nagar, which had no fire NOC and four times the permitted number of rooms

By NewsArc Bureau | New Delhi | June 3, 2026

At least 21 people were killed and 40 rescued — many in critical condition — after a devastating fire tore through a six-storey hotel in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar on Wednesday morning, in what is shaping up to be one of the capital’s deadliest fire tragedies in recent memory. The majority of the dead are believed to be foreign nationals from Central Asia and African countries, though the precise count of overseas victims was yet to be confirmed at the time of reporting.

How the Fire Unfolded

The Delhi Fire Service received the distress call at 8.50 am, reporting a blaze at the Flourish Stay guesthouse on Press Enclave Road, Malviya Nagar. The fire broke out on the ground floor in a restaurant called B-N-B, and within minutes had engulfed the upper floors of the building as well as the basement below.

The hotel’s location, sandwiched between Max Hospital and AIIMS, meant that many of its guests were relatives of patients receiving treatment at these institutions — a detail that has deepened the tragedy and added an international dimension to the casualty list, given that medical tourists from abroad routinely stay in budget accommodation in this neighbourhood.

Harrowing video footage from the scene showed guests trapped on the third and fourth floors, with smoke billowing around them, forced to choose between burning alive and leaping to the street below. Local residents spread mattresses on the ground in a desperate effort to cushion the falls. Ten Delhi Police personnel were also injured during rescue operations and were subsequently hospitalised.

Chief Fire Officer Abhilash Malik confirmed that fire teams evacuated 37 people from the building, with more than six additional survivors pulled from the basement, where a narrow, single-entry passage had left those trapped with virtually no means of escape. In total, 40 people were rescued across the operation.

The Death Toll and the Injured

Max Hospital, the nearest major facility, received 39 people from the scene. Of those, 18 had already died before reaching the hospital. Five sustained minor injuries and were discharged. Fifteen others were admitted to the ICU, with eight on ventilators in critical condition. One severely burnt patient was referred to Safdarjung Hospital.

At AIIMS, 13 patients were receiving treatment. Three of them had jumped from hotel rooms to escape the fire; one sustained broken legs as a result. Among the confirmed dead is a Congolese woman national.

A Catalogue of Violations

Investigators and fire officials have pointed to a series of regulatory failures that transformed a manageable fire into a mass casualty event.

The Flourish Stay guesthouse held a licence issued under the Bed and Breakfast scheme, which permitted a maximum of six rooms. The building, however, had 25 rooms in operation — more than four times the sanctioned capacity. Crucially, the hotel possessed no fire No Objection Certificate, meaning it had never been certified as compliant with fire safety norms.

The building had a single entry and exit point, a factor that proved fatal for those trapped in the basement and on upper floors. With no secondary escape routes and no fire safety infrastructure in place, the structure offered guests no means of self-evacuation once the blaze took hold.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

Political Fallout

The tragedy has triggered an immediate political row. AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bhardwaj drew a pointed comparison with a fire in Palam in February this year, which killed nine people. He noted that three months on, no investigation report has been made public. “Here, 20 to 21 people have burned to death,” he said. “People from other countries came here for medical treatment and were staying in these small hotels. The government is blaming the victims themselves.”

The incident is the latest in a grim series: in the past six months alone, fires across Delhi have claimed 66 lives in separate incidents, raising urgent questions about enforcement of building safety norms and fire compliance across the capital’s dense residential and commercial neighbourhoods.

Authorities have not yet announced arrests or formal action against the hotel’s management or owners. An investigation is underway.