UP fire: Shocked parents stay put at Jhansi hospital waiting for their infants' charred bodies

JHANSI: Yakub Mansuri was sleeping on a pavement outside the children's ward of the medical college in Jhansi Friday night when a fire broke out in the neonatal intensive care unit. He broke through a window and managed to rescue some newborns but not his two daughters.

Charred bodies of some babies were shown to him by the authorities for identification but in vain. "I couldn't recognise them," said the grief-stricken father, still desperate to find his daughters.

A blaze Friday night at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) claimed the lives of 10 newborns, many of them born prematurely. The fire though doused, the air still hung heavy with sorrow.

Parents, mostly young mothers, gathered outside the children's ward to cling to one another, drawing strength in their darkest hour.

Santoshi, who gave birth to a baby just 11 days ago, sat on the ground sobbing with her face in her palms.

"I heard a noise and came running. But how could I save my child? There was no one to tell us what was happening," she said shaking with grief, still to come to terms with the death of her child.

The fire broke out around 10.45 pm on Friday, possibly due to an electrical short circuit. As the rescue operation unfolded, many families kept an anxious vigil, struggling to comprehend the scale of the tragedy that had struck them.

While 10 newborns died in the fire, 16 others remain critically injured.

Among the heartbroken parents was Sanjana, who had just given birth to her first child prematurely.

"My child was born after seven months and was admitted here. He died in the fire. There was no one to save him," the wailing mother told PTI Videos.

Sonu stood frozen, his face a mask of grief. He lost his seven-month-old son in the fire.

"My son had been admitted to the NICU for over a month. When the fire broke out, we were not allowed to enter. They saved many children, but 10 were burned. One of them was my son," he said.

Sonu's brother Parsuram said, "We sold everything we had and took loans to buy medicine to ensure that he got the treatment he needed. Despite all this, we couldn't save the baby."

A grieving father asked reporters if it was possible for someone tell to him whether his son was alive.

A man who witnessed the incident as it unfolded described it as a scene of mayhem.

"We were at the site of the incident at around 10.30 pm. As we entered it (the ward), we could only see smoke. Some people were already inside. People scrambled with children to get out. One man was seen running with four children," he said.

The Uttar Pradesh government has announced Rs 5 lakh ex gratia to the parents of each deceased and also ordered a three-tier probe into the incident.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled with the families of the deceased and announced an assistance of Rs 2 lakh for the next of kin.