A major fire broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS), here on Tuesday morning resulting in death of an infant due to suffocation.
Five infants are reported to be critical and around 40 others had a narrow escape as they were timely shifted by hospital staff to other private hospitals in the city.
State Health Minister T.S. Singhdeo while terming the incident ‘unfortunate’ has ordered setting up of a five-member Probe Committee and has assured of financial assistance to the family members of the deceased .
According to information, fire broke out due to short circuit in power panel because of which smoke spread upwards towards the Neonatal unit. As it was a working hour in the morning so the mishap was sensed and immediately the glass partitions in the unit were broken by hospital staff in a bid to give passage for escape of smoke.
Immediately, the infants were shifted to nearby hospitals in the city.
However, the hospital staff failed to save life of a seven-day old infant who was admitted to the hospital from Bhatapara.
