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.
