A ‘how to survive a fire’ video and quick thinking helped a Nigerian couple survive the massive fire at a bed-and-breakfast in Delhi’s Hauz Rani that claimed 21 lives. The couple, a police officer said, turned on the shower in the bathroom, spread towels on the floor and lay low till help reached them.

The fire at Flourish Stays bed and breakfast on Wednesday morning left 21 people, 13 of them foreign nationals, and injured 15 others.

Following the tragedy, police spoke to the survivors to record their statements. For foreign nationals, translators were roped in.

A senior police officer said a couple told them that they had read about a fire drill and also watched a video on how to survive a fire.

“They had learnt that during a fire, smoke rises and accumulates in the upper part of a room, and that one should turn on the shower or any water outlet and lie low. The couple spread towels on the bathroom floor and lay under the running shower,” the officer added.

According to the police officer, these steps protected the couple from the thick smoke, which appears to have caused most of the deaths in the fire.

During the initial investigation, police have found that many of the victims died not of burns but of suffocation. Officials said the building lacked adequate ventilation and adequate exits for an emergency.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the foreign nationals who died in the incident include four citizens of Nigeria, three of Kyrgyzstan, and one each from Mozambique, Nigeria, Liberia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Congo and Iraq.

The families of several foreign nationals who died or were injured are in Iraq, Bangladesh and several African countries, Liberia, Nigeria and Mozambique. Police said the respective embassies have been informed, and they are coordinating with officials for further procedures.

Most of them were medical tourists who had come to India for treatment, or were accompanying patients. “We have decided to conduct a DNA examination of all the bodies,” the officer said.

Preliminary findings indicate that the fire in Hauz Rani may have been caused by a short circuit. The fire tragedy has also uncovered rampant violations of building norms in the area, triggering a crackdown by civic authorities.