India, June 4 -- The fire that killed at least 21 people at a Hauz Rani bed-and-breakfast on Wednesday has exposed a web of violations that investigators, officials and locals said appeared to have effectively transformed the building into a death trap.

What was licensed as a six-room bed-and-breakfast (B&B) was, in reality, operating as a 26-room hotel. What had permission to run a tea-and-snack outlet, was functioning as a full-fledged restaurant. The structure never received a sanctioned building plan from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and lacked a mandatory fire safety no-objection certificate (NOC), officials said.

Together, these violations created conditions that turned a fire into one of Delhi's deadliest fire disaste...