NEW DELHI: After seven newborns were killed in a fire incident at a baby care centre in Delhi's Vivek Vihar, Atul Garg, Director of the Delhi Fire Services, said that it is most likely that the authorities did not possess a No-Objection Certificate (NOC).
The owner of the care centre, Naveen Kichi, is absconding. As per the Delhi police, an FIR under sections 336 and 304A is being registered against him.
Atul Gard told ANI, "I cannot explain this completely yet; most likely, the authorities did not possess a No-Objection Certificate (NOC)."
"At 11:32 pm, we got a call that there was a fire in the baby care centre. We initially sent seven fire tenders and afterwards, sent five more. We tried very hard and rescued 12 children. Later, we came to know that there were small children, and around six had died. It is a very sad incident," he added.
According to the DFS chief, the fire broke out in the baby centre first, so people from nearby areas had already left and there was no need to rescue the adjacent buildings. Further, Garg said that because there were some oxygen cylinders, the blast took place.
"It was a very tough operation. We made two teams. One team started firefighting because there was a chain blast of cylinders. So we had to save ourselves also. We started rescue operations for babies as well. Unfortunately, we could not save all the children. We removed all twelve babies to the hospital. But after arrival, they declared that 6 were dead. That is a regrettable incident," he added.
Meanwhile, the NCPCR has deployed a team to probe into the fire incident at a private children's hospital in east Delhi's Vivek Vihar that left seven newborns dead.
In a post on X, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights Chairperson (NCPCR) Priyank Kanoongo said the commission has taken cognisance of the fire incident and the newborns' deaths.
An NCPCR team will visit the hospital to investigate the incident, Kanoongo said.