At least ten babies, almost all of them newborns, have died and another 16 have been seriously injured by a fire that broke out late in the day in the neonatal unit of Maharani Lakshmibai Medical College hospital from Jhansi, a city in the north of the India. Initial investigations suggest that the fire could have started due to an electrical failure in the facilities.
The events occurred around 10:45 p.m. (local time) last Friday and everything indicates that, according to local authorities, it was due to a short circuit inside the oxygen concentrator. At that time, 54 newborns were hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) when the accident occurred.
«The death of newborns is very unfortunate. “Together with the family members, we are trying to identify the bodies,” said Brajesh Pathak, deputy minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh, where the incident occurred. According to the ‘Times of India’, the person in charge has advanced that the investigation has to confirm the causes of the fatal event and has made it clear that “will be taken strict measures against those responsible».
Dozens of rescued
So far, seven bodies have been identified, while three remain unidentified. Another 16 babies have been found in critical condition after the fire. Emergency teams were able to rescue, specifically, 39 babies. Hours later, early in the day, police officers entered the burned-out room to take evidence that could be used for the investigation.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also regretted the events and sent a message of condolences to the families of the victims through a brief message on the social network X, in which he called the incident “heartbreaking.” Right there, the person in charge announced a compensation of 200,000 rupees (about 2,250 euros) to the relatives of each deceased in the fire and 50,000 rupees (about 560 euros) to the injured.
For her part, the President of the Republic of Bharat, Draupadi Murmualso called this incident “extremely heartbreaking.” «May God grant the grieving parents and relatives the strength to endure this cruel blow. “I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured babies,” he said in X.
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