Calls to fire office, neighbours pitching in: What transpired on night of the hospital blaze in Delhi

Fire tenders from the nearby fire station were rushed out and by 12:45, 16 fire tenders were at the spot. According to fire officials, the fire had spread in the vicinity and fire fighters climbed up to the nearby building and jumped to the hospital’s terrace from there, after which they entered its first floor through a staircase attached on the front of the building.

Meanwhile, several neighbours had already arrived at the rear end of the building, trying to rescue the newborn babies kept on the first floor after firefighters broke the window at the back of the building. Neighbours had also placed ladders on the rear window, rescuing out the newborns.

Delhi Fire Services Chief Atul Garg said that along with 16 fire tenders, neighbours also joined in the rescue operation to save the newborn babies. Said Garg, “The fire was controlled within an hour and the children were taken to the NICU Hospital in East Delhi”.

Prima facie, officers said that the cause of fire is suspected to be a short circuit in the wiring inside the hospital.

Said a police officer, “The short circuit then spread to the oxygen cylinders which were kept on the front porch and in the reception which eventually burst and went in different directions”. An electricity pole placed near the building was also burnt in the inferno.

Two nurses were present inside the hospital during the incident, both of whom helped in the rescue operation of saving the babies. While the first floor has neonatal care equipment, the terrace or top floor was a canteen for the hospital staff.

An ambulance and a scooter of a neighbour also got burnt in the incident, apart from portions of a bank situated nearby along with an optical shop.

Garg said that no firefighting equipment was present inside the building, including either an extinguisher or a sprinkler.

Seven children were taken to the East Delhi NICU Hospital where they were declared dead and taken to GTB Mortuary. One of them, a male newborn, had died on Saturday evening, hours before the incident, according to police, of an heart ailment, and his kin were supposed to collect his body in the morning.