Three newborns were killed and 36 were rescued after a fire broke out at the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) of the District Women’s Hospital in Amravati, Maharashtra, in the early hours of Monday.

Police said the blaze started after a ventilator exploded and caught fire on the third floor of the unit. Six infants were rescued from the affected area, and the flames were doused in 10 to 15 minutes. At the time of the incident, 39 newborns were admitted to the SNCU, which provides treatment to premature and babies who have low birth weight and are in critical condition.

Sources said doctors, nurses and other hospital staff rushed to the ward after the fire broke out and began evacuating the babies. They disconnected the medical equipment and shifted the infants to safety as rescue operations got underway.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called the incident “heart-breaking” and ordered a high-level probe. “The health administration has been directed to conduct a high-level inquiry,” he said in a statement, adding that strict action will be taken against those found culpable. He announced ex gratia assistance of ₹5 lakh to the family of each deceased infant.

Health Minister Prakash Abitkar, who rushed to Amravati, flagged “grave” irregularities at the fire-hit hospital and said a seven-member panel would probe the blaze and submit its report within eight days.

“The situation here is horrific and unfortunate. Whatever irregularities were there at the hospital were grave ones,” he told presspersons. “The hospital was constructed just two years back and then such a fire incident took place. It is absolutely wrong,” he said.

Yogesh Savarkar, whose eight-day-old child was admitted on the first floor, told PTI that he rescued his child on his own and could “see black ashes on the other children in the hospital”. He said security guards and a nurse entered the smoke-filled ward first.

A nurse who was on duty said: “While the ventilator was burning, we removed the babies. I can’t describe it – it was terrible. The babies were burning next to it, we rescued them, extracted the incubator, and shifted them.”

Eyewitnesses told PTI that the ward’s fire alarms failed and the automatic water sprinkler system did not activate even as smoke filled the ward.

Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Revenue Minister and Guardian Minister for Nagpur and Amravati districts, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, posted on X that some children were shifted to the Divisional Referral Service Hospital for treatment of whom one was serious.

(With inputs from PTI)