India, June 5 -- As flames engulfed the Flourish Inn hotel in Delhi's Malviya Nagar on Wednesday morning, 27-year-old Armaan Mansoori did not think twice before turning his small mattress and blanket shop into a rescue operation.

By the time the fire was brought under control, much of the stock in his roadside store had been used to save trapped guests desperate to escape the inferno. The shop is located directly opposite the Flourish Inn hotel.

"I have no material left in my shop. We used everything to save people," Mansoori said on Thursday, standing outside the tin-shed store directly opposite the gutted hotel.

The shop, established by his father Riyazuddin in the 1990s, sells cotton mattresses and blankets sourced from Panipat and ...