Amravati Hospital Fire: Nurses Braved Smoke, Darkness to Rescue Babies

Amravati: Blinded by thick smoke and poor visibility, nurses scrambled to pull infants from cradles and incubators after a fire tore through the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Amravati's District Women's Hospital early on Monday.

As the ventilator in the unit burned, the nurses recalled rushing to rescue the charred infants nearby, describing the horrifying scene.

Despite the thick smoke and flames, they managed to rescue the babies, pull out the incubator, and shift the infants to a super speciality hospital.

As the fire spread, the nurses rushed to bring the babies outside, recalling how some were barely visible through the haze, yet determined efforts continued until every child was carried out.

The fire broke out in the early hours of Monday at the District Women's Hospital in Amravati. The hospital staff managed to rescue 36 infants from the facility, while three newborns lost their lives in the incident.

The incident occurred in the outbound NICU ward, where nine infants were kept.

Two nurses, who were on duty there, told reporters that there was an explosion in the ventilator.

They recalled how the ventilator was left completely charred as flames raged through the ward. The fire was intense, but their only focus was on pulling the babies out and saving lives.

"While the ventilator was burning, we removed the babies. I can't describe it; it was terrible. The babies were burning next to it; we rescued them, extracted the incubator and took it out and shifted them to a super speciality hospital," the nurses said.

"During that period, we tried to save everyone. We took out the babies, there were nine infants," they said.

The incident occurred between 3 am and 3.30 am.

"As soon as the fire started, all of us, the nurses, doctors and everyone, made every effort to get the babies out. But later, some babies were not visible; still we went there and took everyone outside. We took the cradles outside," the nurses said.