NEW DELHI, Aug. 24 — At least three newborns were killed early Monday in a major fire inside a neonatal intensive care unit at a government-run hospital in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, police said.
The fire broke out on the third floor of the hospital reportedly following a short circuit in a ventilator inside the unit at Women’s Hospital in Amravati district, about 651 km northeast of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra.
Reports said that as smoke and flames spread through the unit, doctors, nurses and other hospital staff on duty immediately evacuated the newborns from the affected ward.
Officials said a total of 39 infants were admitted in the unit when the fire broke out, with 36 rescued and shifted to other hospitals following the blaze.
