India, March 19 -- The fire rose fast. The exits did not. And help, survivors say, could not reach in time. In the choking smoke of a burning building in southwest Delhi's Palam, a father stood at the edge of the third floor and made a desperate choice: he tried to lower his two-year-old daughter to safety. She slipped. Moments later, he jumped. Inside, others waited on balconies, calling for help that struggled to reach them.

By the time the fire was brought under control on Wednesday morning, nine members of a single family were dead, among them three children in one of the Capital's most devastating residential fires in recent months.

The blaze broke out around 7 am in a four-storey building at Ram Chowk Market. The lower floors hous...