Delhi hospital fire: Locals braved cylinder blasts to rescue babies

The ground floor of the building housed a small reception area and storage space that had at least 32 cylinders, police said

A little after 11.30pm on Saturday, 68-year-old Brijender Kumar heard a series of blasts next to his house in C Block, Vivek Vihar, and rushed outside. To his shock, he saw the neonatal hospital next door wrapped in flames. Brijender and his family soon evacuated their house to save themselves before the fire tore across walls and took over his two-storey house.

Charred remains of medical equipment at the hospital. (Arvind Yadav)

None of this deterred Brijender and his son, Yogesh Goyal,40 and grandson, Arnab, 17, from springing to action to rescue the babies trapped inside. “We managed to save our lives but our house is gone. We did not have time to worry about this. We found a nurse who told us 12 children were inside,” he said. They sustained burns to their hands.

Some residents said they worked tirelessly for an hour to rescue the babies using ladders, pipes, and ropes. Goyal said few residents were scared to get involved seeing the magnitude of the blaze, as the building looked like it was going to collapse.

“We did not have a ladder. Two men climbed on my shoulder to reach the window and broke it. There were four babies right next to the window. We stood on an iron grille and pulled out the babies,” he said.

Many challenges

The ground floor of the building housed a small reception area and storage space that had at least 32 cylinders, police said. The first floor of the building had a wide room with three aluminium partitions where the beds were placed and an ICU section. The treatment room was also in the same space. The floor had tiny glass windows at the front and a staircase at the back leading outside. The second floor was used to store equipment, along with some furniture.

Babies were carried one at a time, passed from one person to another, and brought down.

Jitender Singh Shunty, another resident, said he and his son Jyot Jeet entered the building from the rear window. “We saw five to six babies and pulled them out,” he said. Shunty then drove to the nearest hospitals to admit the babies and five of them survived.

Another resident, Lokesh Gupta, said he was scared for his elderly parents but also had to look out for the babies. “The rescue operation was tough because we could only reach the building through the back window. There were no other exits. All the babies were rescued within 20-30 minutes but it took time to get them to the hospital,” said Gupta.

He added that locals took the babies in cars, vans and bikes the other hospitals.

Deepak Hooda, a fire officer who stayed for the cooling and rescue operation, said the blasts did not stop for a while. “We were scared that our staff would get injured. The room was on fire and it was difficult to save the babies. We wrapped them in blankets and rushed them. We used a ladder to reach the first floor,” said Hooda.

A few relieved families

Mithilesh Kumar, 36, a factory worker, rushed to East Delhi Advanced NICU Hospital in Vivek Vihar hoping his six-day-old son had survived. “Last week, my wife gave birth to twins but the baby girl died. My wife and I have been trying for a child for 15 years and were scared to lose our second child. We put him in neonatal care as he had some infection. When I heard the news, my heart almost stopped. The doctors here told me he is alive and needs treatment. I am just relieved,” said Kumar.

Among the five injured, one baby had been on a ventilator for 10 days, since his birth, as he had difficulty breathing. Police said he sustained minor injuries and was stable.

Suman Singh, 35, started checking the hospital records but soon sat down to drink water after she saw her son’s name in the last.

He is seven days old and was admitted because he was a premature baby. “He is our fourth child. I was scared when I saw the news. Neither the nurses nor the doctors took our calls. I just want to take him home now. The hospital did look shady but do people like us have an option? My husband is a carpenter,” said Suman.