For 26-year-old Rishabh Mishra, the images of the afternoon of June 22 will always haunt him — people jumping from a burning building or clinging to live wires in an attempt to survive. One in particular refuses to fade: a man pleading from a window, his face flushed and his eyes desperately seeking help as flames raged behind him.

It was around 2:30 p.m. when Mishra, a bystander, noticed the fire in a three-storey commercial building in Sector D in Aliganj, Lucknow. The building housed a pet shop and a clinic on the ground and first floor, a video gaming zone and 3D art and design animation centre named Head Hoppers Studio on the second floor, and an IT networking office on the third floor.