Report by Prerna Deep:
A heartbreaking incident of Fire came out about a hospital in Maharashtra. The deadly fire took the lives of Ten newborns in the hospital. The incident happened at around 2 AM in the night. Prime Minister Narendra Modi showed remorse for the deaths and called it a “heart-wrenching tragedy.” on his Twitter handle. A total of Seventeen babies were admitted to the special newborn care unit(SNCU) of the hospital. The Hospital is a four-storeyed building in the Bhandara district of Maharashtra, and located about 900 km from the State Capital Mumbai.
Seven out of seventeen were rescued by the fire brigade officials but 10 were not the fortunate ones. The babies who died were admitted in the Outbound ward and died due to Suffocation. Seven of them, who were admitted to the inborn ward of the unit, were rescued by the fire brigade officials; those in the outbound ward couldn’t be rescued. They died due to suffocation. After the Mishap, PM Modi tweeted about it. He wrote- “Heart-wrenching tragedy in Bhandara, Maharashtra, where we have lost precious young lives. My thoughts are with all the bereaved families. I hope the injured recover as early as possible (sic)”. All the infants who died in the incident were between the age of one month to three months. A doctor narrated the incident, Civil surgeon Pramod Khanate said – “Ten children died in a fire that broke out at the SNCU of Bhandara District General Hospital at 2 am today. Seven children were rescued from the unit,”.
Nurses on duty noticed smoke coming out from the neonatal care unit and raised the alarm. “Our staff extinguished the fire as soon as they could. The smoke led to the babies suffocating,” Dr. Khandate said. A short circuit is said to be the reason behind the Fire. However, The confirmation is still pending about the reason. Patients admitted to other wards were shifted safely. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray ordered a probe into the incident and spoke to Health Minister Rajesh Tope. “He held a talk with the district collector and police superintendent and asked them to probe the fire,” his office said in a statement.
