Nurses Saw Fire in Newborn Unit. For 10 Infants, It Was Too Late

Officials did manage to rescue 7 babies at hospital in Bhandara, India
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 9, 2021 9:00 AM CST
10 Infants Dead After Fire Rages Through Hospital
Police officers investigate the scene after a fire broke out at District General Hospital in Bhandara, about 45 miles from Nagpur, India, on Saturday.   (AP Photo)

A fire broke out in the intensive care unit of a government-run hospital in western India early Saturday, killing 10 infants, police and news reports said, per the AP. A preliminary investigation suggests the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit, a police rep says. The Press Trust of India news agency says the infants were 1 to 3 months old. Firefighters rescued seven babies from the newborn care unit of the hospital in Bhandara, a town in Maharashtra state located around 625 miles south of New Delhi. Nurses had been the ones to first sound the alarm on the blaze after noticing flames in the neonatal unit. "Our staff extinguished the fire as soon as they could," a senior doctor at the hospital said, per the Guardian. "The smoke led to the babies suffocating." Al Jazeera notes firefighters were able to stop the fire from reaching other parts of the hospital and that all other patients were safe. (More India stories.)

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