Amravati: Three newborn babies died after a fire broke out in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the District Women's Hospital in Maharashtra's Amravati early Monday morning, prompting the state government to order a high-level inquiry into the incident.
The fire broke out at around 3.15 a.m. when a ventilator in the NICU's outborn babies' compartment caught fire, Amravati Police Commissioner Rakesh Ola said.
The NICU houses premature, low-weight and critically ill babies. According to officials, 39 infants were admitted across its three compartments at the time of the incident. While three newborns died in the fire, 36 others were rescued safely.
Six infants were later shifted to a super-speciality hospital for further treatment, officials said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed grief over the deaths and described the incident as "extremely tragic and heartbreaking".
"The health administration has been directed to conduct a high-level inquiry," Fadnavis said in a statement, adding that the investigation would establish the cause of the fire and identify any administrative failures.
Fadnavis directed Health Minister Prakash Abitkar and the health secretary to visit Amravati and take stock of the situation. He also assured that the strictest action would be taken against anyone found responsible for the tragedy.
The Maharashtra government announced financial assistance of ₹5 lakh for the family of each deceased child. The Amravati district administration was also directed to provide treatment to the injured or affected children at government expense.
Health Minister Prakash Abitkar subsequently constituted a seven-member panel to investigate the fire at the hospital's NICU.
The panel will examine the circumstances surrounding the blaze and look into possible equipment or administrative lapses.
Amravati District Magistrate Asgusg Yerekar rejected allegations that the hospital had failed to undergo mandatory fire safety audits.
Yerekar said the hospital had regularly undergone fire audits and had also applied for this year's audit with the Public Works Department's electrical wing.
"They have also applied for this year's fire audit with the PWD electrical wing. I have seen the documents myself, so it is not the case that the fire audit was skipped," he said.
According to the district magistrate, the focus of the investigation is currently on the equipment that triggered the automatic alert and the possible fault that may have caused the fire.
He said strict action would be taken against the equipment manufacturer if a fault in the company's product is established. He also said that no one would be spared if any administrative lapses were found.
The fire also left families scrambling to rescue their children from the smoke-filled hospital.
Yogesh Savarkar, a resident of Achalpur in Amravati, said his wife and eight-day-old child were admitted to the hospital when the fire broke out. He was sleeping outside the building at the time.
Savarkar said his child was on the first floor and that he rushed inside after learning about the fire and brought the baby to safety.
Describing the situation, he said flames had spread through one of the wards and black ash could be seen on some of the children.
"My child was on the first floor, and I personally went and brought him down. However, I could see black ashes on the other children in the hospital," Savarkar said.
Relatives of other infants also described the difficulty of evacuating the babies as the fire and smoke spread through the ward.
The incident has now triggered a detailed investigation into the cause of the fire, the condition of the ventilator and other equipment, and whether there were any shortcomings in fire safety or hospital administration.
While the district administration has maintained that regular fire audits were conducted, officials are examining whether an equipment failure or any other lapse contributed to the tragedy.
With three newborns dead and 36 others rescued, the state government has promised strict action based on the findings of the inquiry.
