AAP questions ‘delay’ in DFS response to Malviya Nagar firing

At least 12 foreign nationals were among the 21 people who died in a fire that broke out at the Flourish Stay B&B in Malviya Nagar on Wednesday.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday (June 4, 2026) allegedly failed to respond to the Malviya Nagar fire, questioning the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) account of when it was alerted and how quickly personnel reached the spot.

The charges come a day after a fire at a bed-and-breakfast (B&B) establishment in Malviya Nagar left 21 people dead, including 12 foreign nationals, and several injured. People were forced to jump from windows onto mattresses laid out by local residents before firefighters arrived.

AAP Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj told a press conference that the sequence of events described by the government did not match the crime scene images.

“If the mattresses were already laid out at 8:15, the fire must have started around 8:00 or earlier. The rescuers would have informed the fire department or the police. So how can it be said that the fire department was not informed until 8:50?” he asked.

Mr Bharadwaj said it was hard to believe that residents carrying out rescue work had not alerted the emergency services earlier.

“The government claims that the call was received at 8:50 a.m. and that firefighters arrived at the scene at 9:15 a.m. as evidence of a quick response. This is a complete lie,” he said.

He also pointed to the earlier Palam fire in which nine people died and questioned the status of the judicial inquiry ordered in the case.

“The incident happened on February 18. Three months have passed but the report has not been released,” he said.

DFS reports a lack of vehicles

Responding to allegations of delayed response, DFS Deputy Chief Fire Officer AK Malik said the nearest fire station at Geetanjali Enclave was unable to immediately dispatch vehicles as its units were already deployed for another fire.

“We had to mobilize fire tenders from Nehru Place and Bhikaji Cama Place, which are more than seven kilometers away. Traffic delayed their movement but seven units reached the spot within 19 minutes. They carried all the necessary rescue equipment including hydraulic jacks, cutters and hoses,” he said.

Mr Malik said senior officers were monitoring the operation and more help was requested soon after the first teams arrived at the scene.

He said rescue work was being carried out simultaneously on several fronts.

“One team was engaged in extinguishing the fire on the ground floor, another was cutting the shutters in the basement and the third was carrying out search and rescue operations on the upper floors. A total of 38 workers were deployed at the site,” he said.

BJP strikes back

Meanwhile, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor accused the previous Congress and AAP governments of neglecting the fire service.

Mr Kapoor said the DFS faced constraints in infrastructure but continued to respond to emergencies despite limited resources.

“If there is lack of resources, 27 years of corruption and misgovernance by Congress and AAP governments are responsible for it. Saurabh Bharadwaj should explain why the AAP government did not recruit a single firefighter during its 11 years in office and how many fire tenders it bought,” he said.

Published – 05 Jun 2026 0:56 IST