3 newborns die in Amravati NICU fire

Three newborn infants died after a devastating fire broke out in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the District Women’s Hospital on Monday, prompting the state Government to order a high-level inquiry into the tragedy.

Thirty-six other infants were rescued from the smoke-filled facility following the fire, which erupted at around 3.15 am inside a section of the NICU housing premature, low-weight, and critically ill babies, officials said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed deep grief over the “heart-breaking” incident and ordered a high-level probe to investigate the cause of the fire and pinpoint administrative failures. “The health administration has been directed to conduct a high-level inquiry,” Fadnavis said in a statement, assuring that the strictest action would be taken against those found responsible.

He directed state health minister Prakashrao Abitkar and health secretary to visit Amravati in eastern Maharashtra immediately to review the situation and directed local authorities to ensure that all injured children receive treatment at Government expense. He announced ex-gratia financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the family of each deceased infant.

According to police and health officials, the fire was triggered by an explosion in a ventilator in the outborn infants’ section of the NICU.

The facility consists of three compartments, inborn, outborn, and a step-down care ward for infants preparing for discharge, housing a total of 39 babies at the time of the incident.

While staff and rescuers managed to evacuate six babies from the affected outborn section, three infants tragically died in the flames.

Amravati Police Commissioner Rakesh Ola said that six rescued infants were shifted to a super-speciality hospital, while four others were transferred to the Divisional Referral Services Hospital, where one child remains in critical condition. The bodies of the three deceased infants have been sent for post-mortem examination, he said.

The tragedy sparked severe outrage among parents and relatives waiting outside the facility, who alleged gross negligence and a complete failure of safety infrastructure.

Eyewitnesses claimed the ward’s fire alarms failed to sound and the automatic water sprinkler system did not activate as smoke rapidly filled the ward. Parents described a chaotic and terrifying scene, where security guards and on-duty nurses braved blinding smoke and heat to pull out babies from their cradles and incubators before fire tenders arrived.

Yogesh Savarkar, a resident of Achalpur whose eight-day-old child was admitted on the first floor, recalled sleeping outside when panic erupted. “My child was on the first floor, and I personally went and brought him down.

Nurses on duty described the horrifying moments as they fought to save the infants amid poor visibility.

“While the ventilator was burning, we removed the babies. I can’t describe it; it was terrible. The babies were burning next to it; we rescued them, extracted the incubator, and shifted them,” two nurses on duty told reporters, adding they worked frantically until all nine babies in the outborn section were brought outside.