An infant was killed and two other newborns suffered burn injuries after a fire broke out in the neonatal ICU (NICU) at the government district hospital in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara, officials said on Saturday (August 22, 2026). Officials said the deceased newborn was a girl child who had a congenital heart condition.
According to officials, the incident took place around 1.50 a.m. after a radiant warmer machine in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit caught fire due to sparks in its filament coil, causing injuries to three children. In an NICU, newborns who are in poor health at birth would be placed on the beds attached to the machine, which keeps them warm.
The district administration has ordered an investigation into the incident and the civil surgeon will probe the cause behind the fire.
Hospital in-charge and civil surgeon Kanchan Dubey said that after an initial examination, the three infants were referred to the government medical college in Jabalpur.
“There were a total of 33 children there [in the NICU] and these three [infants] were placed on the same warmer. Our staff, including nurses, acted with promptness and saved the other 30 children. They were initially moved to another unit and after technicians and electricians inspected all other machines, the children were shifted back to the NICU,” she said, terming the tragedy an accident and denied any negligence on part of the hospital staff.
“The administrative officials will come and conduct an investigation but I don’t see any negligence in this. It is an accident,” she said, adding that the fire was quickly doused.
Dr. Dubey also denied any technical fault in the machine and said that it was on annual maintenance.
No paediatric surgeon
District hospital paediatrician Anshul Lamba said that the children were referred to the facility in Jabalpur as there was no paediatric surgeon at the hospital. “After the primary treatment, surgical inspection was conducted by specialists and opinion was taken. Since, we do not have a paediatric surgeon here, they were sent to Jabalpur for better treatment,” Dr. Lamba said.
“There was a short circuit in the coil. It did not happen anywhere in the electrical line; the short circuit occurred only in the coil. The problem is that the oxygen tubing also runs from that very area. The short circuit produced sparks, which fell on the oxygen tubing, and caused fire in the cradle. The staff managed to bring out the three children from the cradle within 15 seconds but due to the foam mattress, they suffered burn injuries,” he said.
Speaking to The Hindu, Chhindwara Collector Harendra Narayan Mishra said that an investigation has been ordered into the matter and the civil surgeon will probe the cause of the incident.
“I have been told by the hospital administration that the machine had undergone its annual maintenance on August 10 and no fault had been detected. But since a tragedy has happened, we have informed the maintenance agency in Bhopal. Their engineers will visit the hospital soon for an inspection,” he said.
Mr. Mishra said that the deceased girl child was born with dextrocardia, a congenital condition in which the child’s heart is on the right side of the chest. The doctors said that the other two newborns were also born with serious conditions, with one of them suffering congenital diaphragmatic hernia, a surgical condition.
Injured infants stable
“I spoke to the Medical Superintendent in the evening and the other two children are stable,” he said.
Mr. Mishra said that there were a total of 63 infants in the NICU — 30 in the inborn unit and 33 in the outborn unit, where the tragedy took place, and that there were only 27 warmer machines available, forcing the hospital administration to accommodate two or three children in one cradle.
“Government hospitals usually receive heavy footfall and since most patients are from rural or poor backgrounds, the hospital has to accommodate them all,” he said.
Room full of smoke: kin
Roopmal Verma, a relative of the deceased girl child, narrated the scene to the media saying that the families had initially been told that all children were safe and shifted to another ward.
“I was among the first to reach the spot and the room was filled with smoke. Later, we were told on the phone that our child had suffered burns and will be referred to Jabalpur. She was born around 10.30 [on Friday] night. There is so much negligence here. The nursing staff even asks for money [from families] saying that they will do the delivery properly,” he said.
Anand Verma, relative of another affected child, alleged negligence on part of the hospital staff and administration.
Chhindwara’s public health infrastructure was under criticism last year after 25 children died of kidney failure due to consumption of an adulterated cough syrup manufactured in Tamil Nadu. At the time, most of the affected children had to be admitted in public and private hospitals in Maharashtra’s Nagpur due to lack of necessary infrastructure in Chhindwara even as the local administration remained clueless about the deaths for weeks.
In November 2024, at least 17 infants were killed in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi after a massive fire broke out at the NICU of State-run Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College Hospital.
Published – August 22, 2026 09:40 pm IST
