A fire at the neonatal unit of an Indian hospital killed 10 newborns, authorities said yesterday, with another 16 clinging to life after a blaze blamed on a faulty oxygen machine.
The fire, which broke out at about 10:30pm on Friday night at the Maharani Lakshmibai Medical College in Jhansi, spread quickly through the ward, where 55 infants were being treated.
Forty-five babies were rescued and are receiving medical care, local official Bimal Kumar Dubey said.
Photo: Reuters
Footage from the scene showed charred beds and walls inside the ward as a crowd of anguished families waited outside.
“My child has gone forever,” one mother wailed as she clutched her head in grief.
Babies rescued from the fire, all only days old, were laid side by side on a bed elsewhere in the hospital as hospital staff hooked up their arms to intravenous drips.
“Ten infants have sadly died,” Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak told reporters. “Seven bodies have been identified. Three bodies haven’t been identified as yet.”
Another 16 infants who were rescued were undergoing medical treatment, police superintendent Gyanendra Kumar Singh said.
The fire likely started in a piece of machinery used to enrich the level of oxygen in the atmosphere, he said.
“All children rescued are safe and getting medical attention,” Singh said. “The fire was most likely due to a fire in an oxygen concentrator.”
Pathak, who visited the hospital and met with families, pledged government support for the victims’ families and promised a thorough investigation.
“The cause of the fire will be probed,” he said. “If any lapses are found, strict action will be taken against those responsible and no one will be spared.”
A safety audit of the hospital was carried out in February followed by a fire drill three months later, he said.
When the firefighters arrived, the ward was engulfed in flames and plumes of smoke. Rescuers had to break through windows to reach the newborn babies.
Eyewitnesses said the rescue operation began about 30 minutes after the fire erupted, delaying evacuation efforts.
The accident has raised questions over the hospital’s safety measures. While fire alarms had been installed in the intensive care unit, parents and witnesses said they did not activate during the blaze. Hospital staff acted only after they saw signs of smoke and fire.
“If the safety alarm had worked, we could have acted sooner and saved more lives,” said Naresh Kumar, a parent who lost his baby.
Akhtar Hussain, whose son was rescued and is receiving treatment in an adjacent ward, agreed that the tragedy could have been prevented if the hospital had better safety protocols.
Friday’s fire comes six months after a similar blaze at a children’s hospital in New Delhi that killed six newborns. Authorities said that hospital was not properly licensed and lacked proper fire exits, and police arrested a doctor and the facility’s owner in the aftermath.
The May blaze occurred just hours after least 27 people were killed, including several children, when a fire broke out at a packed amusement park arcade in another part of the country.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS