Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered an inquiry into the fire at a hospital in Jhansi that left 10 children dead, and around 16 injured. The report is to be submitted within 12 hours.
The fire broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Maharani Lakshmibai Medical College late on Friday night. It is still unclear whether it was a short circuit or an oxygen gas cylinder explosion that caused it.
State Health Minister Brajesh Pathak is present at the site.
Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said that according to the hospital staff, the fire broke out between 10.30pm and 10.45pm. The child care unit was divided into two parts, with the more serious children in the innermost area of the NICU. The 10 infants who perished were in this inside unit.
Initial reports suggest that the fire alarm did not go off and this delayed rescue efforts which started only when smoke was seen emanating from the ward.
Shocking videos of the children being rushed out by hospital staff and parents started doing the rounds on social media late on Friday night and in the early hours of Saturday.
CM Adityanath posted on X that rescue operations on a ‘war footing’ were on.
President Droupadi Murmu, too, took to X to express her grief.
Six fire brigades were dispatched to the hospital as soon as the fire broke out. However, 37 infants were rescued by the doctors before any other help arrived.
Congress leader Pradeep Jain described the scene as ‘terrifying’, adding it was one that no one should be condemned to seeing. He also said that while the hospital staff had tried its best, those children who were saved but burnt in some measure, would be susceptible to infections and thus the toll could rise. Jain added that he had requested the administration to send the children to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital to ensure that most of them could be saved.
BJP MLA Rajiv Singh Parichcha labelled it a ‘sad and unfortunate’ incident.