Ten newborns were killed in a hospital fire in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the latest in a string of similar tragedies that highlight the abysmal state of building safety and fire preparedness in the world’s most populous country.
The fire, which broke out late Friday at the Maharani Laxmibai Medical College and Hospital in Jhansi, was caused by an electrical short circuit on the ground floor, according to Sachin Mahur, the chief medical superintendent of the government-run facility.
That was the location of the neonatal intensive care unit. Flames quickly engulfed the ward, which held 49 infants, Mr. Mahur said, speaking via telephone from the hospital. All the victims were less than a year old and on life support. Of those saved from the fire, 17 remained at the hospital, while others went home to their parents or were moved to another hospital, he said. A nurse also suffered burns.
“Some of the newborns who died were under observation after their treatment was over and to be sent home in the next day or two,” Mr. Mahur said. But the fire spread so quickly that it was impossible to save them, he said.
Hospital fires are not uncommon in India. In May, seven newborn babies lost their lives in New Delhi when a fire broke out at the private neonatal clinic. In one of India’s worst such fires in 2011, 93 people died in a private hospital in Kolkata.
“Even though over a decade has elapsed since that disaster, no lessons seem to have been learnt because the frequency with which accidental fires keep breaking out in hospitals has not reduced,” wrote the authors of a 2023 study on fire accidents in India. The study found that despite new building codes and safety systems to prevent fires or reduce their severity, implementation remains lax.
Images of the charred ward in Jhansi and of distraught parents were shared on social media. “Who will return my baby?” one cried in front of TV cameras.
The government announced compensation of five hundred thousand rupees, or about $6,000, for those parents who had lost their babies.
India is woefully understaffed and underequipped to manage fire outbreaks. Data provided to the Parliament in 2019 showed that the country had only 3,377 fire stations when regulations called for 8,559. The fire service had about 55,000 people, when a half-million were called for, and 7,300 vehicles, when it should have had 33,000.
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