TEN newborns were killed and sixteen others were injured after a fire ripped through a neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital in northern India, according to authorities.
A hospital in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, caught fire late Friday. The fire swiftly spread throughout the unit, where 55 infants were receiving treatment, according to officials. According to local official Bimal Kumar Dubey, 45 infants were saved and are undergoing medical treatment.
The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known. On Saturday, state deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak paid a visit to the hospital and spoke with relatives. He promised a thorough inquiry and government help for the families of the victims.
“We will take decisive action and find the people who caused this catastrophe. “The government supports families in this trying time,” he stated.
The ward was covered in smoke and flames when the firefighters arrived. To get to the newborns, rescuers had to smash through glass. Evacuation operations were delayed, according to witnesses, since the rescue effort started around half an hour after the fire started.
The hospital’s safety protocols have come under scrutiny as a result of the tragedy. Despite the fact that the intensive care unit had fire alarms, parents and witnesses claimed that they did not sound during the fire. Only after hospital employees noticed the smoke and fire did they take action.
“We could have taken action sooner and saved more lives if the safety alarm had worked,” said Naresh Kumar, a parent who lost his child.
Akhtar Hussain, whose kid was saved and is currently being treated in a nearby ward, concurred that improved safety procedures at the hospital may have avoided the tragedy.
In India, where building regulations and safety standards are frequently disregarded by both people and builders, fires are frequent. Deaths in the nation are also caused by inadequate firefighting supplies and poor upkeep.
Three years after a hospital fire in the western state of Maharashtra killed ten newborns, a fire at a children’s hospital in New Delhi in May claimed the lives of at least six newborns.#
