Ventilator blast or short circuit? Maharashtra probes cause of NICU fire that killed 3 infants

E-PaperSubscribeSubscribeEnjoy unlimited accessSubscribe Now! Get features like Three infants died while 36 others were rescued in the early hours of Monday after a ventilator explosion triggered a fire in the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) of the District Women’s Hospital in Amravati, Maharashtra, prompting the state government to order a high-level probe and enforce strict fire safety audits across healthcare facilities statewide. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said a probe is underway. (PTI)Maharashtra chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis termed the incident “extremely tragic and heart-wrenching”, announcing ₹5 lakh in ex gratia for the family of each deceased infant. He also directed the Amravati district collector to ensure that all injured and rescued infants receive medical treatment at state expense. According to officials, the fire broke out around 3.30am on the third floor of the newly constructed hospital building, which houses three SNCUs with a combined capacity of 39 infants. Also Read | Saw infants covered in ashes, recalls parent after Amravati hospital fire tragedy As smoke filled the ward, nurses and medical staff manually disconnected life-support systems and rescued the infants. Of the 39 newborns across the three units, 36 were rescued. Six critically ill babies from the affected section were shifted to three nearby private super-speciality hospitals, said officials. Three infants in the out-born unit died from severe burn injuries and smoke inhalation, they added. According to Amravati Civil Surgeon Dr Vinod Pawar and police commissioner Rakesh Ola, the blaze erupted after a ventilator in the nine-bed out-born section suddenly exploded. Fire brigade officials, however, said an electrical short circuit might have caused the fire. Also Read | Newborn dies, two injured after fire breaks out in Madhya Pradesh NICU Swapnil Barge said he received the news of the death of his son hours after he informed his family about the birth. “Around 3.30 am, I was standing at the hospital gate with a friend when I heard a woman shouting... Then there was an uproar, and the fire brigade came. I kept looking for my baby and wife, but couldn’t find him.” Yogesh Savarkar, whose eight-day-old child was admitted on the first floor, recalled sleeping outside when panic erupted. “My child was on the first floor, and I personally went and brought him down...,” he told news agency PTI, adding that security guards and a nurse were the first to enter the smoke-filled ward. State health minister Prakash Abitkar visited the hospital and announced a seven-member expert committee headed by Public health commissioner Sanjay Katkar. The panel will submit its report within eight days. He added that Schiller Company (Nagpur), which supplied the ventilator, would be blacklisted, if equipment malfunction was established. A high-level meeting will also review fire safety compliance across state government hospitals. Also Read | Premature baby born at 27 weeks receives ₹3 lakh cashless NICU treatment in Punjab Congress leader Yashomati Thakur, who visited the hospital, questioned the official claim of a ventilator explosion, noting that a similar fire had occurred at the facility previously. Senior NCP (SP) leader and former minister Anil Deshmukh alleged that recommendations made by a committee following the 2021 Bhandara hospital fire, which had claimed the lives of 10 infants, had gone unimplemented.