Indian police arrest hospital boss after six babies die in fire

NEW DELHI - Police in India said on May 27 that they had arrested a doctor and the owner of an unlicensed hospital where

six newborn babies died in a fire

in a crowded ward without fire exits.

The blaze broke out at the New Born Baby Care hospital in New Delhi’s Vivek Vihar area on the evening of May 25.

“We didn’t even name her... I never even held her in my arms,” parent Anjar Khan, whose 11-day-old daughter died in the blaze, was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

Bystanders spotted the fire in the crucial first minutes, and braved the blaze to rescue the newborns inside.

Mr Vinod Sharma, who lost his day-old baby boy, blamed the hospital authorities for the tragedy.

“He had a problem with breathing. The doctor had said that he will be fine in a few days,” Mr Sharma was quoted as saying by the Indian Express newspaper.

“We didn’t know that the hospital would kill him.”

Fires are common in India due to poor building practices, overcrowding and a lack of adherence to safety regulations.

The narrow, two-storey hospital building was squeezed between a row of homes without space on either side, making it hard for fire engines to reach.

“We were trying to control the fire, but there was no way to enter the building and rescue the 12 babies who were trapped,” local fire officer Atul Garg told reporters.

Senior police officer Surendra Chaudhary told AFP that the hospital did “not have a fire exit system”.

Its licence had expired in March and the owner had crammed into the ward more than twice the number of beds it previously had permission for.

“The hospital had permission for up to five beds but they had installed more than 10 beds,” he said.

“In view of all this, we have made the arrests.”

Five babies pulled out from the fire are still recovering in another hospital.

Highly flammable

The blaze in the hospital on May 25 broke out just hours after a separate fire at an amusement park in India’s western state of Gujarat.

The toll from that fire rose to 28 on May 27, police said.

The fire – which ripped through a centre with a bowling alley and other games crowded with youngsters – was triggered by welding work on the ground floor, chief fire officer Ilesh Kher told reporters.

“The CCTV (closed-circuit television) footage clearly shows that a spark from the welding work fell on a stack of corrugated cardboard sheets below, causing the fire,” Mr Kher said.

“This spread very fast as the material was highly flammable.”

The corpses were so badly burnt that they have not been identified so far.

Police have charged seven people with culpable homicide in connection to that fire.

The two fires came as northern India was gripped by intense heat, with temperatures in Delhi hitting 46.8 deg C on May 25, according to the India Meteorological Department. AFP