NEW DELHI: As firefighters toiled to douse a massive fire at a private neonatal hospital in east Delhi’s Vevek Vihar area on Saturday night, many parents whose newborns were admitted to the facility had no clue what was going on.
Madhuraj Kumar, whose eight-day-old son was among the fortunate survivors, found out about the fire when he saw the charred hospital building on his way to work on Sunday morning.
Similarly, no one from the hospital reached out to Deepak Gautam, whose six-day-old daughter was admitted there. His sister informed him about the fire after she saw it on the news.
Families of Madhuraj Kumar, Gautam and others blame the hospital for negligence but are glad that their children survived.
Meanwhile, bodies of five of the seven newborns killed in an east Delhi neonatal hospital fire have been handed over to their families after post-mortem, police said on Monday.
The bodies of the other two newborns will be handed over after autopsy on Monday, an officer said.
The police said one newborn was claimed to have died hours before the fire broke out but that can be verified after the autopsy.
The private neonatal hospital in Vivek Vihar, where a blaze killed six newborns and injured five others, was operating despite the expiry of its licence. It also did not have qualified doctors and no clearance from the fire department, officials said.
Forensic teams and an inspector from the electricity department visited the scene on Monday to ascertain the exact cause of the fire, the police said.
During an inspection of the scene, 27 oxygen cylinders were found inside and outside the building. Of these, five were found to have burst, it added.
‘Expedite solatium disburbal’
The revenue department has been asked to expedite the process of compensation to the families of the babies killed and injured in the fire, the health minister said on Monday