Jhansi: In the backdrop of the devastating fire incident on Friday in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NIC) of Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi, one of the largest hospitals in the Bundelkhand region which snuffed out lives of 10 children, ETV Bharat looks at the calamitous fire incidents that took lives across India in recent years.
- About 94 people including 90 patients were smothered to death at one of the devastating fire tragedies at the AMRI Hospital in Dhaukuria of South Kolkata on December 12, 2011. The cause of the fire was the inflammable material, stored illegally in an underground car park of one of the wards, which caught fire and spread to the upper floors through air conditioner ducts.
- The inferno at SMU Hospital in Bhubaneshwar on October 20, 2016, killed 20 people and left 120 with burn wounds.
- Eight persons died and over 145 sustained injuries when a massive fire -- which took more than three hours for the firefighters to douse -- swept through the state-run Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Kamgar Hospital at Marol in Andheri, East Mumbai on December 17, 2018.
- A stampede following a fire incident at Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital in Murshidabad district of West Bengal on March 3, 2019, killed one and left 30 injured.
- Another fire incident in an Ahmedabad hospital on August 6, 2020, claimed eight lives. Around 40 patients at the facility were rescued and shifted to a civic hospital. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who lost their lives.
- 11 patients including two women died and several were feared trapped when a fire broke out at a hotel converted into Covid-19 care unit in Vijayawada on August 9, 2020. The state government announced Rs 50 lakh ex-gratia to families of the deceased.
- A fire incident on September 10, 2020, in the ICU of a 50-bedded Ahmedabad hospital treating Covid-19 patients snuffed lives out of eight patients while the remaining were evacuated and shifted to the civic hospital.
- On the close heels of it, another fire tragedy in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital in Rajkot claimed four Covid-19 patients and left six injured. The injured and other patients had been shifted to another hospital. The fire was caused by an electric short circuit at Uday Shivanand Hospital, a designated COVID-19 hospital, in the Mavdi area.
- A midnight fire in the children's ward at a hospital in Bhandara of Maharashtra on January 9, 2021, charred 10 out of the 17 admitted newborns. A solatium of Rs five lakh was announced for the next to the deceased.
- A total of 175 patients were safely evacuated after the store on the ground floor of a Cardiology hospital in Kanpur caught fire on January 3, 2021.
- Three of a family were killed and two others injured after a fire broke out in a building of a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra on October 10, 2022.
- A sexagenarian undergoing treatment at a hospital in Delhi's Rohini died due to a dearth of oxygen after a fire incident, due to a short circuit, snapped the supply in the early hours of June 11, 2022.
- At least five people, including a doctor couple, were smothered to death as a fire tore through a private hospital in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad on January 28, 2023.
- At least seven newborns were killed after a massive fire engulfed a New Born Baby Care hospital in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar on May 26, 2024. As many as 12 babies were rescued, out of which six died, while one died before the fire call was made.