On the rainy morning of August 26, the front courtyard of District Women Hospital in Maharashtra’s Amravati district was crowded with politicians, reporters and bystanders. Amid them stood 30-year-old Swapnil Borde. His bottle-green shirt hung limp with sweat, while his red-rimmed eyes brimmed with tears.

He is the father of one of the three newborns who died after a fire broke out in the four-storey Special Newborn Care Unit and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) on the third floor of the maternity hospital around 3.15 a.m. on August 24. Thirty-six babies were rescued and shifted to nearby hospitals, according to Amravati District Collector Ashish Yerekar. Two sustained burn injuries, says Amol Narote, medical superintendent of the government-run super-speciality hospital. Preliminary investigations indicate that a ventilator sparked the fire.

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Swapnil’s newborn was of low weight and had breathing issues, so was put on a ventilator two days before the fire.

“Gora bala kala kela. Ek minta pan nahi tambaycha ikde, khup bekar jhala ahe, pan mala ajun majhya mulachi janiv hote (My fair baby was turned black. I don’t want to be here even for a minute, but I still feel the presence of my child here),” says Swapnil, who works as a delivery person.

He adds, “This was the first baby in my family in this generation. It took us four years to conceive him. I took him in my arms only after he died.”

Outside the NICU, the empty fire extinguishers lay on the floor, while the soot-covered room, guarded by the police, continued to be frequented by people. Among them were members of a State-level investigation committee, Amravati MLC Pravin Pote and Achalpur Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Pravin Tayde. Former Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly and Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar also visited the hospital. The parents of the other two newborns who died in the August 24 fire came from Achalpur and Paratwada, 50 km from the hospital.

Established in 1938, the hospital is one of Amravati’s major government maternity hospitals. It also caters to Wardha, Yavatmal and Washim districts. Primary healthcare centres and sub-district hospitals across Amravati, including Melghat, a tribal-dominated region, refer critical pregnancies here. The hospital was formerly known as Dufferin Hospital, named after Lady Hariot Dufferin, who established the Dufferin Fund in 1884 to provide medical aid to women in India.

Dr. Vinod Pawar, District Civil Surgeon of Amravati’s District Women’s Hospital.
| Photo Credit:
Emmanual Yogini

Investigation underway

District Civil Surgeon Dr. Vinod Pawar, who is in charge of the maternity hospital, says, “Around 3.15 a.m., my staff in the NICU heard an explosion from the ventilator and saw fire coming out of it. They alerted the fire department and me simultaneously. Our priority was to rescue the babies.”

Dr. Pawar has submitted the fire-audit-related documents to the investigation committee. The police, meanwhile, have registered an accidental death report.

Maharashtra Minister for Public Health and Family Welfare Prakash Abitkar formed a seven-member committee headed by Public Health Commissioner Sanjay Katkar and directed it to submit its report within eight days. He said the committee’s findings would be made public and responsibility fixed.

On August 26, Mr. Katkar and the committee visited the spot and questioned the nurses who were present in the NICU at the time of the incident. The CCTV footage was also handed over to the committee, which comprises officials from the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, AIIMS and the Directorate of Medical Education and Research. It has been tasked with examining ventilator and electrical faults, the fire-audit history and administrative lapses. The report was due on August 31 but has not yet been released.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced ₹5 lakh in compensation for each family that lost its newborn in the fire and directed that the treatment of injured infants be fully covered by the government.

Of the 36 newborn babies, 11 have been admitted to Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Memorial Medical College (PDMMC), 10 to Hope Hospital, eight to Murkey Hospital and two to Parijat Hospital. Five were discharged with their mothers.

Radhika Yehkade (19) and Arti Kharale (27) whose children were rescued from the fire and shifted to PDMMC hospital in Amravati.
| Photo Credit:
Emmanual Yogini

Survivors’ accounts

Radhika Yehkade, 19, was the last to deliver her twins before the fire. They were born around 2 a.m. on August 24 and kept in the NICU. 

“I had a difficult pregnancy. I was in the hospital the week before my delivery. I am unable to let go of the voices in my head. Nurses shouting, ‘Help,’ people screaming, ‘Fire, fire.’ I am unable to make peace with the fact that my babies’ lives would have lasted only for two hours,” says Radhika, whose twins were admitted to PDMMC.

Radhika’s mother, Phula Shanware, 55, also an eyewitness, adds, “The smoke was dense; the fire brigade reached in time but took almost an hour to take water pipes to the third floor.”

Talking about her daughter, Phula says, “She had a tough pregnancy; we are daily wage earners and have already spent ₹80,000. We have been far from our house in Achalpur for almost 10 days.”

Another woman, Arti Kharale, 27, narrated her story. “When I saw my daughter, she smelt of wet ash. My heart sank when I heard about the fire,” says Arti, who lives in Amravati city. She says this was the second such fire in the hospital. The last, as reported by the media, was in September 2022.

Fifty-three-year-old Asha Dharse’s daughter delivered her baby at PDMMC. Chatting with other women, she says, “In June, I removed my daughter’s name from Dufrin because my cousin said they are negligent. Chutney, bhakri bhetel, pan aulad nahi, navas karava lagto (We will earn food, but not the baby).”

Yogesh Savarkar, 24, is waiting outside the maternity room at PDMMC, where his daughter and wife have been transferred. Recalling the night of the incident, he says he was among the first parents who barged into the room to rescue the infants.

He narrates, “The flames were soaring, wires were sparking, black smoke was coming out of the broken windows, and the equipment was burning. When I entered, I saw three children covered in black powder. One child had burns on his face. We rescued them first.”

Mr. Savarkar is also from Achalpur and came to the maternity hospital on August 17. 

Yogesh Savarkar, a resident of Achalpur in Amravati, whose child survived the hospital fire.
| Photo Credit:
Emmanual Yogini

Maharashtra’s fire audits

Chief Minister Fadnavis has raised concerns over the hospital’s mandatory fire audit. A fire audit is a systematic inspection of fire safety readiness, assessing electrical load, wiring safety, overloaded circuits, faulty switchboards, and equipment prone to sparking or overheating, such as ventilators, oxygen concentrators and compressors.

According to data from Maharashtra’s Public Health Department, of the 530 government hospitals across the State, 528 have completed fire audits. As many as 442 hospitals have fire safety systems fully installed, while only 372 hospitals hold a fire no-objection certificate (NOC). This means nearly 30% of government hospitals do not have fire NOCs.

In Amravati alone, 18 government hospitals were audited, of which 16 received the NOC. Meanwhile, in Wardha and Gondia districts, 11 hospitals were audited, but none received the NOC. In Beed district in the Marathwada region, 18 hospitals did not receive NOCs.

On August 25, the Public Health Department announced a State-wide fire and electrical safety inspection of all government, private and charitable hospitals. Minister Abitkar had said, “If discrepancies are found in the audit, then they are to be rectified. Every hospital will appoint a nodal officer for fire safety, who will review fire audits, electrical safety, fire-fighting systems, emergency evacuation arrangements, staff training, and mock drills, and submit compliance information to senior levels.”

Initial warning

Records show that the Dufferin Hospital Authority had flagged concerns over the fire safety systems. A letter dated June 29 stated, “The hospital had obtained a fire NOC valid from June 22, 2025, to June 21, 2026. Before this validity period lapses, a registered licensed agency must conduct a fire safety audit, and Form B must be submitted to this office — so the fire NOC renewal proposal can then be forwarded to the Fire Department of Amravati Municipal Corporation.”

A follow-up letter was also written to the Public Works Department on July 17, reminding it to arrange a fire safety audit. “The fire NOC is an essential document for the hospital, and if its validity period lapses, the possibility of legal complications arising during an emergency cannot be ruled out,” the second letter stated, urging immediate action. The letter was marked to Amravati District Collector Ashish Yerekar and health services in the Akola division. Mr. Yerekar has not responded to The Hindu’s query regarding the action taken after receiving this letter.

Meanwhile, hospital staff and patients said this was the second fire incident in the last five years. “We learnt from our mistakes in the 2022 fire. That is why we have been extra careful with fire audits,” says an official from the Amravati maternity hospital. According to hospital authorities, a ventilator in the NICU had also caught fire then, causing minor injuries to two newborns.

The ventilators in both cases were supplied by Schiller Healthcare, which has been called for the investigation. An official said a committee will be set up to create SOPs for the procurement of medical equipment. 

Nursing attendants Kirti Ghanvir and Surekha Dhanvijay, who helped to rescue several infants inside the Amravati hospital NICU.
| Photo Credit:
Emmanual Yogini

Courage under fire

Outside the NICU, the smell of smoke lingered. In the corridor, kaksh-sevikas (nursing attendants) were waiting for their turns to appear before the committee as part of the investigation. Among them was Surekha Dhanvijay, 45, one of the four attendants present in the NICU, who witnessed the fire and called for help. “The moment I heard the explosion, a huge flame burst out. With our bare hands, we tried to douse the fire near the cradle and take a baby out.”

“I have only one regret: that we couldn’t save those three children,” says Kirti Ghanvir, 45, another nursing attendant. Showing her fire burns and blisters, Ms. Ghanvir adds, “I had to feel around in the burning cradles to see if there was a baby. When I found one, I grabbed it.”

In the meantime, they informed others in the hospital, who rushed to help. “Most of us wrapped blankets around ourselves, broke the glass and entered, rescuing babies,” says Lalita Lasbe, 35.

The sevikas say they do not want any appreciation as they consider this part of their jobs, but appeal to the government to increase their salaries. They say they currently get ₹8,000 a month and are hired on contract, so their salaries barely increase.

snehal.mutha@thehindu.co.in