10 newborn babies died in a massive fire at Maharani Laxmibai Medical College in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh on Friday night.
This fire broke out in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the hospital. Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar has confirmed the death of 10 newborns.
On the other hand, UP Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak reached the spot in the early hours of Saturday.
Brajesh Pathak said, “We are identifying the children along with the family members. Orders have been given for a high-level investigation of the incident. The first investigation will be done at the government level, which will be done by the Health Department. The second investigation will be done by the police administration. In which the fire department team will also be involved. The third investigation will be done at the magistrate level. The incident will be investigated in any case. Whatever the reasons will be, they will be put before the people of the state.”
When and how did the incident happen?
Jhansi’s Chief Medical Superintendent Sachin Mohar has said that this incident happened due to fire in the oxygen concentrator.
He said, “54 children were admitted in the NICU ward and suddenly the oxygen concentrator caught fire, which was tried to extinguish. But the room remains highly oxygenated, so the fire spread immediately. Therefore, we took out the children as much as we could. Most of the children have been evacuated safely. At present 10 children have died.”
Meanwhile, Jhansi district DM Avinash Kumar, while giving information about the incident, said late at night, “According to the primary information received from the staff present on the spot, between 10:30 and 10:45, a fire broke out in the unit inside the NICU, possibly due to a short circuit.”
“Information has been received about the death of 10 children. The team reached on time and many children have been rescued safely. An investigation committee has been formed under the supervision of the Commissioner and DIG, whose report will be submitted to the Chief Minister.”
What did the eyewitnesses say
An eyewitness has said that after the fire broke out, many newborns were taken out by breaking the net. He says that he is not able to find his child.
Another eyewitness Kripal Singh Rajput said, “He had gone inside to feed the child, during that time a madam came running and her leg was on fire. She was screaming. We took out about 20 children safely and handed over the children to the madams.”
“Some children were on oxygen and some were in critical condition. We picked up the children and handed them over to the hospital administration so that whoever’s child it was could be saved safely. The cause of the fire is being told to be a short circuit but the machines had overheated. Due to which the children died.
An eyewitness named Rishabh Yadav said that there was a lot of chaos here, when the fire broke out, there must have been about 50 children and people ran with their children towards the emergency.
He said that some families do not even know where their children are, the administration should be informed about this.
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What did CM Yogi say?
The Chief Minister of the state Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief over the incident by writing a post on the social media website X.
He wrote, “The death of children in an accident that took place in the NICU of the medical college located in Jhansi district is extremely sad and heartbreaking. The district administration and the concerned officials have been instructed to conduct relief and rescue operations on a war footing. I pray to Lord Shri Ram to grant salvation to the departed souls and speedy recovery to the injured.”
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