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Ten newborn babies died after fire broke out in the Special Newborn Care Unit of a hospital in Maharashtra in the wee hours on Saturday, doctors said.
All the infants were between a month and three months old, a doctor said.
Fire broke out in the Bhandara district hospital at around 2 am, he said. There were 17 babies in the unit and seven were rescued, he added.
Another doctor said a nurse first noticed smoke coming out from the neonatal section of the hospital and alerted doctors and other staff who reached there in five minutes.
Fire brigade personnel rescued seven babies from the ”inbound ward” of the unit but could not save the 10 other babies, he said.
The cause of the fire in the four storeyed building is not known but could have been the result of an electrical short circuit, he said.
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said, “Out of 10 infants, 7 died due to suffocation while 3 were burnt to death. Also, the home secretary has ordered not to carry out postmortem and handover bodies to families”.
While one the other hand CM Uddhav Thackeray has ordered a probe, as per a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office.
“The chief Minister has ordered a probe in the entire incident. He spoke to the district collector and police superintendent and asked them to probe the fire,” the statement said.
Even Minister Ajit Pawar has ordered fire audit in all maternity wards in Maharashtra.
However PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Devendra Fadnavis and many others have expressed condolence.
