When fire engulfed the Flourish Stay hotel in Malviya Nagar on Wednesday morning, Riyazuddin did not wait for instructions. The owner of a mattress shop across the street began pulling stock off his shelves and laying it on the road below the burning five-storey building – a makeshift safety net for whoever could jump.

“As soon as the fire broke out in the hotel, we laid out the mattresses from our shop onto the road,” he recounts. 

His family, originally from Narangpur village in Amroha district, has made Delhi their home for nearly half a century. On Wednesday, they may have made it a home worth returning to for several others.

“Every single sheet used to cover the bodies retrieved from the building also came from our shop. We even used our own sheets to carry the injured out of the hotel. We laid out more than 21 mattresses on the ground below. We suffered a loss of around Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. Seven or eight people jumped onto those mattresses, and every single one of them survived. They sustained minor injuries, but their lives were saved. Among those who jumped were two women and the rest were men.”

Riyazuddin has run his shop here for 45 years, long before the hotel arrived five years ago. A cement warehouse earlier stood where the hotel now stands. He had arrived early on Wednesday, as usual. “This incident occurred sometime between 8 am and 8:30 am. At that time, I was right here at my shop. Suddenly, sounds of commotion........

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