Mangaluru: In the wee hours of August 24, a fire broke out in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the District Women’s Hospital in Maharashtra’s Amravati. Three newborn children died immediately. Another six newborns, reportedly injured, were moved to a super speciality hospital.While the actual cause of the incident has not been officially announced, a few hospital staff, in their initial comments, have claimed that a ventilator inside the NICU had exploded and that the fire intensified because of the stored oxygen cylinders in the room.Soon after the incident, the chief minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, immediately announced an inquiry into the incident. A high-level inquiry committee has been set up to investigate the incident, he said. The families of the deceased will be provided with financial assistance of Rs. 5 lakh, he announced.अमरावती येथील जिल्हा स्त्री रुग्णालयात काल रात्री लागलेल्या आगीत तीन बालकांचा मृत्यू झाल्याची घटना अतिशय दुःखद आणि हृदयद्रावक आहे. त्यांच्या कुटुंबियांच्या दुःखात आम्ही सहभागी आहोत.या घटनेची उच्चस्तरीय चौकशी करण्याचे आदेश आरोग्य प्रशासनाला देण्यात आले आहेत. या घटनेतील दोषींवर…— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) August 24, 2026Narrating the incident, Dr Vinod Pawar of the District Women’s Hospital told the media that around 3:30 am he received a call and rushed to the hospital immediately. “I was told that a fire broke out in the outborn section of the NICU,” he told the press. “When I reached, the nurses had already managed to evacuate six babies. Three more were stuck inside, but the fire was so intense that we couldn’t enter.”According to Amravati district magistrate Ashish Yerekar, the hospital had undergone regular fire audits and had also applied for this year’s audit with the Public Works Department’s electrical wing. Speaking to the media in Amravati, Yerekar said, “No, the fire audit for last year was indeed conducted… I have seen the documents myself, so it is not the case that the fire audit was skipped. Fire audits have been conducted regularly.”The District Women’s Hospital is a busy one. At least 39 newborns were reportedly in the NICU at the time of the incident.This is not the first time a fire has broken out at a hospital in Maharashtra. This recent incident is only part of a recurring history of deadly hospital blazes in the state. Short circuits, malfunctioning equipment, and electrical overheating in critical care units have repeatedly claimed lives.In January 2021, a massive fire broke out around midnight inside the Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU). Ten newborn babies were killed due to severe burns and smoke suffocation. Similar to the Amravati incident, 17 infants were in the ward, and an electrical short circuit was blamed for triggering the blaze.The same year, in November, another fire ripped through Ahilyanagar (then Ahmednagar) District Civil Hospital’s specialised COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ward. Eleven adult patients had died and several others sustained severe burn injuries. An electrical short circuit in the air conditioning mechanism or medical equipment was identified as the root cause.In March 2021, in another incident in Bhandup, Mumbai, fire claimed 11 lives inside a private hospital. The patients, all hospitalised in an intensive care unit, were trapped on ventilators. In a similar incident on April 22, 2021, in Mumbra in Thane district, four lives were lost at another private hospital, Prime Criticare Hospital, after a short circuit inside the hospital’s meter room. On the same day, 22 patients died due to an oxygen tank leak at a COVID-19 hospital in Nasik.Following this spate of fire incidents, the Maharashtra government, led by then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, issued a state-level circular strictly making hospital administrations personally liable for instantly rectifying any defects discovered during local PWD or fire department checks.The fact that a fire broke out in Amravati despite these audits has led to opposition ire.Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Vijay Wadettiwar wrote on X, “If there is negligence regarding fire safety arrangements in hospitals, regular inspection of equipment, and maintenance of oxygen and electrical systems, then whose responsibility is it? No need for a drama of inquiry after innocent lives are lost; fix the accountability and take strict action against the guilty.”NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) MP Supriya Sule demanded a probe and thorough audits of all hospitals in the state. “A thorough investigation of the entire matter must be conducted, and the strictest possible action must be taken against those responsible. Along with this, there is a need to conduct fire audits of all government and private hospitals in Maharashtra, as well as safety audits of medical equipment,” she wrote on social media.