Bhubaneswar, June 4 -- In the darkest moments of a tragedy, ordinary citizens often become extraordinary. On the morning of June 3, a deadly fire ripped through the five-storey Flourish Stay B&B in Malviya Nagar, Delhi, claiming at least 21 lives. Amid the chaos and thick smoke, one man's instinctive courage turned a potential disaster into a story of survival.

The Mattress Miracle

Armaan, a nearby mattress shop owner, noticed guests trapped on the upper floors with stairwells engulfed in smoke. Without waiting for rescue teams, he pulled 20-25 mattresses from his shop and arranged them on the asphalt below.

Panicked residents jumped from the second and third floors onto the makeshift safety net. "Most of them were safe," Armaan told P...