A fire broke out at Asian Hospital in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, following which 58 patients, including nine newborn babies, were rescued. 

According to the hospital authorities, the newborns were shifted to the nearby GhatI Hospital, MGM Hospital, and Sanjeevani Hospital. The incident occurred reportedly around 2.15 a.m. due to a short circuit in an AC unit in the NICU.

“The duty staff noticed smoke coming out of AC and immediately activated the code red, using their presence of mind, and evacuated the newborns. The fire due to a short circuit was controlled in time. We also shifted newborns to other hospitals with their guardian’s permission,” said Shoaib Hashmi, Managing Director, Asian Hospital, adding that they managed to avoid a big tragedy because the hospital fire system is intact and staff is well-trained. 

The Padampura Fire Department received the call at 2.27 a.m. about a fire. A team of the CIDCO Fire Department rushed to the spot with fire tenders. Chief Fire Officer Ashok Khandekar said, “a major disaster was averted due to timely action which brought the fire under control.”

This is the second incident of fire in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in last 10 days in Maharashtra. On August 26, a similar incident took place in Dufferin hospital of Amravati district, in which three newborn babies were killed.