A wedding anniversary celebration, extended holiday and the desire to roam around the touristy places in the national capital were cut short for 17 people as they lost their lives in the tragic fire which took place in the hotel at Arjit Hotel Palace in Karol Bagh area, Delhi on Monday morning.

Police said that among the deceased are three Keralites, a retired IRS officer, two Myanmar women, an HPCL engineer, an advocate, a child, the cook, and the supervisor of the hotel while five people are yet to be identified.

According to the police, the deceased has been identified as Suresh Kumar IRS (42),Tara Chand (43) chef at hotel who jumped off building, Ninda (35), Chalapathi Rao (52), Vidya Sagar (60), Arvind (50), Nalini Amma (83), Rabia Menam (50), Tun Hla Sein (32), Dawmla May (67), Pranav Kumar Bhaskar (32) and Beena while the injured has been identified as Chain Maya Nyan (28), a Myanmar tourist.

Thirteen of a family from Kerala had come to Delhi to attend a wedding and were to return home on Wednesday but tragedy in the hotel claimed three lives of their family.

“We had come to attend a wedding in Delhi. We were a group of 13 people and have come from Ernakulam district in Kerala. We had come for the wedding of our relative in Ghaziabad. We were planning to go to Haridwar too. Ten of us were rescued by police and fire team. We had booked four rooms in the hotel. We were all ready early morning to go to Haridwar however as I came out of the bath and saw a sudden power cut. Then immediately the hotel staff switched on the generator. This was followed by heavy smoke and smell. We could not escape. We lost three members of the family identified as Naliniyamma and her kids Jayashree and Vidhya Sagar,” said Surrender Kumar, their relative and retired businessman.

Gyandeep, on the other hand, who stays in Paharganj, said that he is a tour operator of the Myanmar group and a resident of Tripura. When the person who organised the tour for them called me, I arrived for help. Two women from Myanmar have died while one is injured. They were a total of seven tourists who after visiting UP, Bihar, Nepal Lumbini had come to Delhi for pilgrimage tour. They were to visit a temple in Santnagar.

Suresh Kumar (45), now o more, was in the Indian Revenue Service. He was an Assistant Commissioner in the Indian tax department. He was a resident of Panchkula.

Kumar, while in a bid to save himself, jumped from the fourth floor, and sustained severe injuries. He was declared brought dead in the hospital. Police said that he was with his family to celebrate his wedding anniversary.

Tara Chand, a cook working at the hotel also jumped from the fourth floor of the building in order to save himself.

Meanwhile, Rabiya Menam, an advocate, was in Delhi for a hearing in the Delhi High Court. She was a single parent and was to meet her son Ishaan on Monday who is studying in a college in Delhi.

Family members of Praveen K Bhaskar, An HPCL engineer, stated that he was in the national capital to attend the Petro tech conference and was staying at the hotel.