Twin tragedies struck national Capital on Sunday in which ten people, including seven newborns, charred to deaths. In a tragic incident, a massive fire broke out at a private children’s hospital in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar, leaving seven newborns dead in the facility functioning at 25 sqft plot.
Police arrested the owner of the children’s hospital on Sunday. The owner Dr Naveen Kichi was on the run since the fire outbreak late on Saturday night.
The blaze broke out at the Baby Care New Born Hospital Delhi’s Vivek Vihar at around 11:30 pm on Saturday and soon spread to two other adjacent buildings.
According to Delhi Fire Service (DFS), 16 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the blaze. DFS chief Atul Garg said 12 newborns were rescued from the medical facility but seven of them died.
Two boutiques, a portion of IndusInd Bank operating from an adjacent building and a shop on the ground floor were also damaged besides an ambulance and a scooty parked outside the building.
The Prime Minister’s Office has announced Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the families of each of the seven victims, and Rs 50,000 for the families of the injured babies. Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj has ordered an enquiry into the matter.
In the second tragic incident, three people died after a fire broke out in a four-storey residential building in Krishna Nagar area of east Delhi. The charred body of a 66-year-old woman identified as Promila Shad was recovered from the first floor of the building, while two others identified as 18-year-old Keshav Sharma and 39-year-old Anju Sharma were declared brought dead by the doctors.
President Droupdi Murmu, Prime Minister Modi, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, Union Health Minister Manshukh Mandaviya, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Health Minister Bharadwaj condoled the deaths.
Chief Minister Kejriwal said those responsible for negligence will not be spared.
DCP Shahdara Surendra Choudhary said, “On Saturday at about 11.30 pm a PCR call regarding fire was received at Police Station Vivek Vihar. At the spot, fire was found in Baby Care New Born Hospital at C-54, Vivek Vihar and its adjacent building. On receipt the call SHO and ATO Vivek Vihar and ACP Vivek Vihar reached the spot.”
He further said, “In the hospital there were 12 newborns admitted. They were all rescued and shifted to the East Delhi Advance NICU Hospital, Vivek Vihar for treatment. Out of these babies, six were declared brought dead and one died earlier. The seven bodies have been further shifted to GTB Hospital for postmortem.” He added that there were no reports of casualties or injuries from the building adjacent to the hospital, which was also engulfed in flames.
Speaking about the fire, the father of a deceased nine-day-old baby Ritik, said, “I came from Bulandshahr and our child was referred to this hospital. He had problems with oxygen. I came to know about the incident through news. The baby was 9 days old. I have spent around Rs 70,000-80,000. The hospital is responsible. They saved themselves and left the children.”
According to eyewitnesses, locals and members of an NGO, Shaheed Seva Dal, were the first to rush to help.
Some residents climbed the building from the back side and rescued some of the newborns. Members of Shaheed Seva Dal, an NGO operating in the area, were also involved in the rescue efforts, an eyewitness said.
Vijay Jain (65), a trader, and resident, said his daughter-in-law and son sustained injuries as they tried to escape. “We never saw a doctor there. There were only nurses and men, who would come at night and refill 20-30 cylinders. We filed a complaint with the police and local authorities. Nothing happened. The newborn babies were kept on the first floor while the ground floor and second floor were filled with cylinders and garbage.”
Ravi Gupta, a local resident, said some locals climbed from the back side of the building and evacuated children one by one.
Garg cited oxygen cylinder blast as the cause of the fire. He said, “It was a very tough operation. We made two teams. One team started fire fighting because there was a blast of cylinders. We can say it was a chain of blasts of cylinders. We had to save ourselves also. We started rescue operations for babies as well. Unfortunately, we could not save all the children. That is a regrettable incident.”
Delhi Police has registered an FIR against the owner of the New Born Baby Care Hospital Naveen Kichi under sections 336 (endangering life of personal safety of others), 304A (death by negligence) and 34 (criminal activity) of the IPC. He is currently absconding and a police team has been dispatched to Jaipur, where Kichi is believed to be in hiding.
The police said teams have been formed to nab the owner. Choudhary said they are checking the fire NOC of the hospital and if it is found without it, IPC sections may be added.
Lieutenant Governor Saxena also directed the Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to “institute inquiry” into the east Delhi hospital fire that killed seven newborns.
