58 Patients, Including 9 Newborns, Evacuated From Maharashtra Hospital After Fire

Nine newborns were evacuated from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a private hospital in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar after smoke was detected from an air-conditioning unit early Friday. The incident took place at Asian Hospital in the Jalna Road area of the city, officials and the hospital administration reported.

The nine babies were receiving intensive or specialised medical care in the NICU when hospital staff noticed smoke coming from an AC unit. Hospital administrator Dr Shoeb Hashmi described the incident as minor and explained that staff immediately moved the newborns, along with patients from a neighbouring general ward, as a precaution.

The infants were subsequently shifted to other hospitals after their families gave consent, Dr Hashmi added. The hospital team brought the situation under control and took steps to ensure the safety of the patients. The general ward patients were later allowed to return to the hospital.

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The hospital administration reported that the facility had been cleaned and resumed its routine functioning following the incident. However, there were conflicting accounts regarding injuries. While Dr Hashmi referred to injuries in the incident, the in-charge officer at Jawaharnagar police station reported that there were no injuries or casualties.

The incident comes around 10 days after a serious fire at the NICU of the District Women’s Hospital in Amravati, in Maharashtra’s neighbouring Vidarbha region. That fire resulted in the deaths of three newborns, while 36 babies were rescued from the affected facility.

The Amravati tragedy prompted the Maharashtra government to order a high-level inquiry into the incident. The latest fire at the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar hospital has again drawn attention to safety measures in facilities providing critical neonatal care, although authorities have reported that no casualties occurred in Friday’s incident.

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