Amravati, Aug 24: Three newborn babies died and 36 were rescued after a fire broke out in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the District Women’s Hospital here early Monday, triggering a high-level probe by the Maharashtra government.
The fire erupted at around 3.15 am inside a section of the NICU housing premature, low-weight, and critically ill babies, officials said.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed deep grief over the “heart-breaking” incident and ordered a high-level probe to investigate the cause of the fire and pinpoint administrative failures.
“The health administration has been directed to conduct a high-level inquiry,” Fadnavis said in a statement, assuring that the strictest action would be taken against those found responsible.
He directed Health Minister Prakash Abitkar and health secretary to visit Amravati in eastern Maharashtra to review the situation and asked local authorities to ensure that all injured children receive treatment at government expense.
The CM announced an ex-gratia financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the family of each deceased infant.
According to police and health officials, the fire was triggered by an explosion in a ventilator in the outborn infants’ section of the NICU.
The facility consists of three compartments, inborn, outborn, and a step-down care ward for infants preparing for discharge, housing a total of 39 babies at the time of the incident.
While staff and rescuers managed to evacuate six babies from the affected outborn section, three infants tragically died in the flames.
Amravati Police Commissioner Rakesh Ola said that six rescued infants were shifted to a super-speciality hospital, while four others were transferred to the Divisional Referral Services Hospital, where one child remains in critical condition.
The bodies of the three deceased infants have been sent for post-mortem examination, he said.
Hours after the tragedy, Health Minister Abitkar announced a seven-member committee to probe the pre-dawn fire at the newborn care unit of the government hospital.
Abitkar, who flagged “grave” irregularities at the fire-hit hospital, said the panel would submit its report within eight days and those indicted for the tragedy would face strict action.
The minister, who visited the fire-hit hospital to review the situation, said the committee would be headed by the state Health Commissioner.
The panel will also include officials from the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL), experts from AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) and representatives of the Directorate of Medical Education, he informed.
“I reviewed the situation at the hospital today along with the secretary of the (health) department and some local representatives. The situation here is horrific and unfortunate. Whatever irregularities were there at the hospital were grave ones,” Abitkar told reporters.
“The hospital was constructed just two years back and then such a fire incident took place. It is absolutely wrong,” he said.
The minister said the panel would ascertain the exact cause of the fire as well as fix responsibility for the tragedy.
The tragedy sparked severe outrage among parents and relatives waiting outside the facility, who alleged gross negligence and a complete failure of safety infrastructure.
Eyewitnesses claimed the ward’s fire alarms failed to sound and the automatic water sprinkler system did not activate as smoke rapidly filled the ward.
Parents described a chaotic and terrifying scene, where security guards and on-duty nurses braved blinding smoke and heat to pull out babies from their cradles and incubators before fire tenders arrived.
Yogesh Savarkar, a resident of Achalpur whose eight-day-old child was admitted on the first floor, recalled sleeping outside when panic erupted. “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, noting that security guards and a nurse were the first to enter the smoke-filled ward.
Nurses on duty described the horrifying moments as they fought to save the infants amid poor visibility.
“While the ventilator was burning, we removed the babies. I can’t describe it; it was terrible. The babies were burning next to it; we rescued them, extracted the incubator, and shifted them,” two nurses on duty told reporters, adding they worked frantically until all nine babies in the outborn section were brought outside.
For many families, a night of anticipation turned into unmitigated heartbreak.
Swapnil Barge, a resident of Pulgaon village, had telephoned his family hours earlier to celebrate the birth of his premature son, born just a day prior.
“Around 3.30 am, I was standing at the hospital gate with a friend when I heard a woman shouting… Then there was an uproar, and the fire brigade came. I kept looking for my baby and wife, searched a lot but couldn’t find him,” Barge said inconsolably. It was only at 7.30 am that he received the crushing news that his newborn had died in the blaze.
Another grieving father, Praful Chopde, whose five-day-old son died in the fire, blamed the administration for negligence and said that his wife had not even seen the infant over the past five days, questioning why the fire alarms failed to sound and why authorities waited for fire tenders rather than acting immediately with functional safety systems.
The tragedy quickly escalated into a major political row in Maharashtra, with Opposition parties targeting the state government over alleged administrative laxity and non-compliance with fire safety protocols.
Senior NCP (SP) leader and former state home minister Anil Deshmukh alleged that recommendations made by a committee following the 2021 Bhandara hospital fire, which had claimed the lives of 10 infants, had gone unimplemented.
Congress leader Yashomati Thakur, who visited the hospital, questioned the official claim of a ventilator explosion, noting that a similar fire had occurred at the facility previously. She demanded scrutiny into the safety of electrical connections and accountability from equipment suppliers.
Defending the medical staff, Health Minister Abitkar expressed deep sorrow, asserting that hospital personnel left no stone unturned and made every possible effort to save the infants. (PTI)
