Jhansi hospital fire: Three rescued infants die of illness, says doctor

10 of the 15 newborns had died on the day a massive fire broke out at the hospital, while five have died during treatment since Friday.

In Short

• Three infants have died during treatment in last 24 hours
• 10 newborns died in the fire on Friday, five died during treatment
• Massive fire broke out at Jhansi's Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College

Three infants rescued in the fire at the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi have died due to illness during treatment, a doctor said.

Dr Narendra Sengar, Dean of the medical college, confirmed the development and said that the three infants died due to illness in the span of the last 24 hours.

One of these infants was the one who was reunited with his mother 36 hours after the fire incident on Friday.

"A total of 39 children were rescued in the fire on Friday. 10 children died due to burns. Out of the those who were rescued, five children have died due to illness so far. Three children have died today," Dr Sengar said.

"Their burn injuries have nothing to do with the deaths. They did not have any burn injuries. They did not have any kind of smoke effect. The children who died today died due to illness," he added.

The bodies of the three infants have been sent for post-mortem.

At least 10 children lost their lives, and 16 others sustained injuries in a massive fire that broke out at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the medical college on Friday.

District Magistrate Avinash Kumar suggested that a short circuit might have caused the blaze.

Also, preliminary investigation revealed that the filling date mentioned on the fire extinguisher cylinders was 2019 and the expiry was 2020. After the fire broke out, the fire alarm also did not go off.

The fire, which broke out in the ward around 10.30 pm on Friday, led to a stampede-like situation in the hospital. It took more than two hours to douse the blaze. Visuals showed the equipment in the ward where the newborns were kept was fully charred.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the deceased children and Rs 50,000 each for the injured.