Indian police arrest hospital director after six babies die in fire | National

Indian police said Monday they had arrested a doctor and the owner of an unlicensed hospital where six newborns died in a fire in a crowded ward with no emergency exit.

The fire broke out at New Born Baby Care Hospital in New Delhi's Vivek Vihar area on Saturday evening.

In the crucial first minutes, it was passersby who spotted the fire and braved the blaze to save the newborns inside.

“We didn't even name her… I never even held her,” Anjar Khan, whose 11-day-old daughter died in the fire, was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

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

“He had a breathing problem. The doctor had said he would get better in a few days,” Sharma told the Indian Express newspaper.

“We didn’t know the hospital was going to kill him.”

– Five babies rescued alive –

Fires are common in India due to poor construction practices, overcrowding and lack of compliance with safety regulations.

The narrow two-story hospital building was squeezed between a row of houses, with no space on either side, making access difficult for fire trucks.

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

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

Its license had expired in March and the owner had crammed into the ward more than twice the number of beds for which he had previously been licensed.

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

“Given all of this, we made the arrests.”

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

– 'Highly flammable' –

The hospital fire broke out on Saturday just hours after another fire at an amusement park in India's western state of Gujarat.

The death toll from the fire rose to 28 on Monday, police said.

The fire, which ravaged a center housing a bowling alley and other games frequented by young people, was sparked by welding work on the ground floor, fire chief Ilesh Kher told reporters.

“CCTV footage clearly shows that a spark from the welding work fell on a pile of corrugated sheets below, causing the fire,” Kher said.

“It spread very quickly because the material was highly flammable.”

The bodies were so badly burned that they have not yet been identified.

Police have charged seven people with intentional homicide in connection with the fire.

Both fires occurred as northern India was gripped by intense heat, with temperatures in Delhi reaching 46.8 degrees Celsius (116.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday, according to the Indian Meteorological Department.

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