Neonatal Unit Fire in Northern India Claims 10 Newborn Lives

A fire ripped through the neonatal unit of a hospital in northern India, killing 10 newborns and injuring 17, the authorities said.

Emergency responders rescued 38 newborns from the ward, which housed 49 infants at the time of the incident, said Uttar Pradesh state’s Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak on Saturday.

The fire broke out at 10:30pm (17:00 GMT) on Friday at the Maharani Lakshmibai Medical College in Jhansi, about 450km (280 miles) south of the national capital, New Delhi.

“Seventeen of the injured are receiving treatment in different wings and some private hospitals,” Pathak told reporters in Jhansi.

The newborns died from burns and suffocation. Authorities have identified seven of the dead infants, while they continue to identify the remaining three, Pathak said.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire, but police said a faulty oxygen concentrator most likely caused it.

Footage from the scene showed charred beds and walls inside the ward as anguished families waited outside.

Staff laid the rescued babies, all only days old, side by side on a bed elsewhere in the hospital and hooked them up to intravenous drips.

*Equipment damaged by the fire in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit [AP]*

When the firefighters arrived, the ward was engulfed in flames and smoke. Rescuers had to break through windows to reach the babies.

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Safety Failures and Lapses in Protocols

The incident has raised questions over safety measures at the facility.

The intensive care unit had fire alarms. However, parents and witnesses said the alarms did not activate during the blaze. Hospital staff only acted after they saw the smoke and fire.

“If the safety alarm had worked, we could have acted sooner and saved more lives,” Naresh Kumar, a parent who lost his baby, told The Associated Press news agency.

Akhtar Hussain, whose son rescuers saved and treated in an adjacent ward, said the hospital could have prevented the tragedy with better safety protocols.

One infant remains missing, a government official, who asked not to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media, told the Reuters news agency.

Pathak said the hospital conducted a safety audit in February, followed by a fire drill three months later.

He said, “If authorities find any lapses, they will take strict action against those responsible and spare no one.”

The Indian Express newspaper reported that a nurse, identified only as Meghna, suffered burn injuries to her leg after attempting to save the newborns and extinguish the flames.

*Firefighters in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Jhansi hospital [AP]*

Shoddy Construction and Safety Lapses

District official Avinash Kumar said an electrical short circuit caused the fire in the unit, The Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the deaths “heart-wrenching” in a post on social media.

“My deepest condolences to those who lost their innocent children in this,” Modi wrote. “I pray to God to give them the strength to bear this immense loss.”

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced compensation equivalent to $5,900 to each bereaved family.

Building fires are common in India due to shoddy construction and a routine disregard for safety regulations. Poor maintenance and lack of proper firefighting equipment also lead to deaths.

Six months back, a similar blaze at a children’s hospital in New Delhi killed seven newborns.

Last month, a huge explosion involving fireworks left dozens of people injured in the state of Kerala.

This news is sourced from AlJazeera and is intended for informational purposes only.