9 Newborns Are Rescued from a NICU That Caught Fire, Video Shows Heroes
Nine newborns were receiving intensive care in the middle of the night when smoke began coming from an air-conditioning unit inside their hospital ward.
Within minutes, staff at Asian Hospital in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, India, were moving babies out of the neonatal intensive care unit as fire and thick smoke spread through part of the building. CCTV footage of the evacuation has since traveled well beyond Maharashtra, giving viewers an uncomfortable look at what happens when the patients who need to get out cannot move themselves.
The fire broke out at around 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 4. Fifty-eight patients were on the affected floor, including the nine newborns, 36 people in a general ward, and 13 patients in special rooms.
Every one of them got out. No patients or hospital employees were reported injured, and the newborns were transferred to other hospitals for continued care.
Getting Them Out
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The footage, also circulated by News.com.au, generated plenty of second-guessing from viewers watching staff negotiate the doorway and move the infants from the ward.
The emergency record offers another perspective on the response.
Laxman Kolhe, the local fire brigade official in charge, told the Times of India that thick smoke had spread through the NICU and other parts of the hospital. Five fire tenders responded, but hospital employees had already evacuated the patients by the time firefighters arrived.
Kolhe said the amount of smoke made firefighting difficult. Crews nevertheless had the blaze under control in less than half an hour.
Hospital managing director Dr. Shoaib Hashmi said employees had received fire-safety training and followed emergency procedures after the smoke was noticed. The hospital also began providing documentation concerning its fire-safety clearance to the municipal corporation after the incident.
Investigators had not established the exact cause in the immediate aftermath. Initial information pointed to a possible electrical short circuit involving the NICU’s air-conditioning system.
Ten Days Apart
The safe evacuation came against a particularly grim backdrop in Maharashtra.
About 10 days earlier, another fire broke out in a neonatal unit at the District Women’s Hospital in Amravati. Thirty-six newborns survived that fire, but three premature babies died. The Maharashtra government subsequently ordered a high-level inquiry.
That made the Asian Hospital fire the state’s second major neonatal-unit fire in less than two weeks.
This time, the nine newborns were moved to other medical facilities with their families’ consent. Patients from the neighboring general ward were later allowed back, and Asian Hospital resumed normal operations.
