Second hotel of Flourish Stay owner shows same fatal design

The owner of Flourish Stay, where 21 people died in a fire on Wednesday, apparently had a design philosophy. A visit to another Malviya Nagar property linked to him reveals the same principles at work: a basement full of guest rooms with no windows, walls, or ceilings clad in wood from end to end, a single narrow corridor as the only route in or out, and a kitchen running on LPG tucked into a corner surrounded by flammable panelling.

The basement of this second property is reached by descending a staircase lined almost entirely with wood-finish wall panels. At the bottom, a single narrow corridor stretches the length of the floor, with guest rooms opening off on either side.

That corridor is the only access route to every room down there. There is no secondary exit. In any fire scenario, smoke filling that corridor would cut off every room from the only way out.

The rooms are compact to a degree that leaves little margin for anything beyond sleeping.

A double bed occupies most of the floor in each one. The remaining space is taken up by wardrobes, side cabinets, and small electrical appliances. One room holds a bed, a chair, and a refrigerator, and essentially nothing else. Another is split between a bed and storage units.

Neither room, seen from the doorway, shows any window or external opening. Ventilation comes from an air conditioner and a ceiling fan. That is all.

The corridor, common area, and kitchen are all clad in the same laminated wood-finish panelling. The kitchen sits in a recessed alcove at the back of the basement, with LPG cylinders and electrical equipment positioned close together, the entire setup surrounded by the same material that, in a fire, accelerates the spread of flames and generates dense toxic smoke within seconds.

Fire investigators routinely flag exactly this combination as among the most dangerous configurations in hotel fires: no ventilation, flammable interior surfaces, gas connections in enclosed spaces, and no secondary escape route. At Flourish Stay on Wednesday, the fire moved through a building with sealed windows, a single entry and exit point, and no valid fire safety clearance. The 21 people who died had nowhere to go.

This second property, seen on Thursday, appears to have been built on the same logic.

The question that naturally follows is how many properties in Bajaj’s network share this template. Police say he operated with two other partners and that the group holds several other hotels and guest houses across Delhi. Each of those properties now falls within the scope of the investigation.

Delhi authorities have already ordered a city-wide survey of all bed-and-breakfast and hotel establishments. A one-month enforcement drive began on Wednesday night. The building owner’s other properties will be part of that exercise.

Twenty-one people are dead. And at least one other property he appears to have run looks, from the inside, like the same kind of place.