It was a nightmare without end, said Somshekhar, who had come to Delhi from Kerala with his family to attend a wedding in Ghaziabad and was staying in the hotel.
"Ten of us were rescued by police and fire teams. We had booked four rooms in the hotel. We were all ready early morning to go to Haridwar when suddenly there was a power cut. They switched on the generator and there were heavy smoke and smell," he said.
His sister, who is missing, alerted them to the smoke and rushed out to check what was happening, he said.
"The entire pathway was full of smoke. My mother and brother were along with my sister at the time. I immediately came to the room and opened the room for fresh air and we managed to escape. We were on the second floor of the hotel," he said.
The fire broke out in the second floor of the building, a North Delhi Municipal Corporation official said.
The hotel had a canopy on its terrace with chairs and tables laid out, indicating that there was an open restaurant operating there, fire officials said, adding that there was wooden panelling in the rooms inside that could have helped the fire spread.
While the Delhi government ordered a magisterial probe, Home Minister Satyendra Jain said he has also directed the fire department to inspect buildings which are five floors or more and submit a report on their fire safety compliance within a week.
Babu Panikar, head of Delhi Malayali Association, said, "I got to know that Malayali's were trapped inside. I rushed to the spot to check on them. It's a group of 13 members belonging to the same family who came from Ernakulam to attend a wedding in Ghaziabad.