A fire broke in the Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) of the District General Hospital in Bhandara, which is about 60km from Nagpur on Saturday between 1.30am and 2am. Ten premature babies died in this terrible mishap, almost charring three to four babies. Eight girls and two boys died in this fire break out. Seven premature girl babies were rescued from this mishap.

All the new born babies were yet to be named as they were kept in special care from their birth. The officials knew the names of the mothers of nine babies out of 10 victims. One of the mother’s names is missing as the child was abandoned at birth only. All the rescued babies, including the twin girls, are shifted to other units of the hospital.

All the victims were kept in the ‘out-born’ section of the hospital, but they needed special care so were admitted. Dr Pramod Khandate, Bhandara district civil surgeon said that most of the babies died as oxygen supply broke because of the fire as three to four babies were charred to death. The cause of the fire is still not known but is assumed to be caused due to a short circuit.

The Maharashtra government has ordered an immediate high-level inquiry by a six-member committee to investigate regarding the accident. The committee will submit the required report to the government in three days.

CM Uddhav Thackeray said that strict action will be taken against the guilty after a detailed investigation. He announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of the deceased babies. Bhandara district collector, Sandip Kadam has been asked to send the accurate action report in 48 hours of receiving the letter from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

Fire tenders reached the fire spot in 10 minutes after being informed and managed to douse the fire flames in almost 30 minutes. Kalgun Gopala Wadhai, the fire maintenance in-charge of Bhandara Municipal Council said that the fire fighters couldn’t find easy access to the special ward and used ladders to break open the windows to enter. Bodies of the babies were given to the distressed parents. The media was barred from talking to them.

Ajit Pawar, Deputy CM has ordered an audit related to child care units of other hospitals in Maharashtra immediately. Anil Deshmukh, State home minister too has ordered a police inquiry regarding this mishap. The chief fire officer of Nagpur and PWD officials said that the fire wouldn’t have spread to a great extent if anyone had been present in the ward. Chandrashekhar Bawankule, who was a former state energy minister and BJP functionary claimed that there was no action taken even though the relatives of the infants complained regarding the power fluctuations in the ward in the last week.

Source: ET Healthworld