Amaravati: Three newborns died after a fire broke out in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the District Women's Hospital in Amravati in the early hours of Monday.
According to preliminary information, the fire erupted at around 3.30 a.m. on the third floor of the hospital, reportedly following an explosion in a ventilator inside the neonatal unit.
Doctors, nurses and other staff on duty immediately launched an evacuation operation and managed to rescue several infants from the ward.
Around 39 newborns were reportedly admitted to the unit at the time of the incident. However, three babies suffered fatal burn injuries in the blaze. Six infants have been shifted to the Super Speciality Hospital for further treatment.
The timely response of the hospital staff helped save several other newborns. Further details regarding the cause of the fire and the condition of the rescued infants are awaited.
Earlier, in a separate incident, three newborns sustained burn injuries after a fire broke out in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Chhindwara District Hospital, Madhya Pradesh, in the early hours of Saturday, officials said.
Civil Surgeon of the district hospital, Kanchan Dubey, said the incident occurred at around 1.50 a.m. when a spark in the filament of a warmer used in the NICU caused the equipment to catch fire, resulting in burn injuries to three newborns.
"There were 30 other children there, making a total of 33. Three babies were affected, and the remaining 30 were immediately shifted to safety by our staff, including nurses and guards, who acted promptly and saved their lives," she said.
Congress MLA from Amravati, Sulbha Sanjay Khodke, on Monday said the deaths of three newborns in a fire at a government hospital were a "truly tragic incident" and called for a detailed inquiry into the circumstances that led to the blaze.
Khodke said the infants who died were premature and had low birth weight, requiring intensive care and close medical monitoring. She said there were nine patients in the affected unit and that hospital staff managed to evacuate the babies and shift them to a private hospital following the incident.
"This is a truly tragic incident. These were premature, low-birth-weight infants who required ICU care. There were nine patients in total, three of whom passed away, but the staff managed to evacuate all the babies and have them admitted to a private hospital. Nevertheless, this is a tragic event. It involves an electrical issue; the full details will only be known after an inquiry is conducted. I requested an inquiry and a thorough investigation into exactly what happened," Khodke said.
The incident has once again brought the safety of neonatal and intensive-care units into focus, where premature and critically ill infants are particularly vulnerable during emergencies. Amravati has also witnessed a previous NICU fire incident.
The latest incident has therefore raised renewed questions over electrical and fire-safety arrangements in critical-care facilities. Khodke has sought a comprehensive investigation to establish what caused the fire and whether any lapses contributed to the deaths.
Authorities are continuing to assess the incident and the condition of the infants who were evacuated from the NICU.
