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.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
RSS