The cause of the fire in the neonatal unit of Bhandara District Hospital in central India is still unknown.
After this new tragedy in the establishment of the hospital, the authorities ordered an immediate investigation. (Picture courtesy)
AFP
According to information given by a doctor, ten infants died in a fire at a maternity hospital in the Indian state on Saturday in the latest disaster raising doubts over the safety of Indian hospitals.
Staff at Bhandara District Hospital (Central) were able to save seven newborns, but failed to save ten other infants, a doctor, Pramod Khandate, told AFP. According to press reports, children ranging from a few days to three months of age died.
“The cause of the fire is not yet known, but our employees quickly extinguished the fire. Smoking suffocated children, ”the doctor said. The nurses had raised the alarm when they noticed that the hospital’s newborn unit had caught fire. Firefighters were able to prevent the explosion from spreading to other parts of the site.
“Extremely tragic” deaths
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter, “The poignant tragedy in Bhandara, Maharashtra, where we lost precious young lives.” Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi called the deaths “extremely tragic”.
After this new tragedy in the establishment of the hospital, the authorities ordered an immediate investigation. India suffered more than 90 deaths in 2011 in a hospital fire in Calcutta (West Bengal, East).
In August 2020, eight patients with Kovid-19 died in a fire at the Ahmedabad Hospital (Gujarat, North-West). In November 2020, five other coronavirus patients died in a fire in a clinic in Rajkot (Gujarat state). Because of these tragedies, the Supreme Court has requested a report on the safety of hospitals dealing with coronovirus cases.
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