Yakoob Mansuri, a food vendor in Hamirpur, saved several infants during a fire at Jhansi’s Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College but tragically lost his own newborn twin daughters. Yakoob broke into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to rescue as many babies as possible, but his daughters’ bodies were identified the next day. Devastated, Yakoob and his wife Nazma sat outside the hospital, overwhelmed with grief.

The fire left other families shattered. Sanjana Kumari, a first-time mother, mourned her infant, who perished in the blaze. “My baby burned to death before my eyes. The hospital’s negligence destroyed my dreams,” newspaper TOI quoted Sanjana as saying.

Santoshi Devi from Jalaun lost her baby amid the chaos. “I heard screams, but my baby was gone,” she said, recalling how her joy turned to heartbreak just 11 days after childbirth.

Sonu and Sanjana from Lalitpur lost their premature son, who was being treated for respiratory issues. “We did everything we could, but the fire took him from us,” said Sonu, who lamented the financial and emotional toll of their efforts to save him.

Niranjan Maharaj, also from Lalitpur, identified his grandchild’s body by its name tag. He accused hospital staff of negligence, stating, “They didn’t act in time.”

The tragedy has left multiple families grieving and questioning the safety measures at the hospital.

About incident

A fire broke out at the Special Newborn Care Unit of Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi on Friday night, claiming the lives of 10 newborns and highlighting serious deficiencies in fire safety measures. At the time of the incident, 55 newborns were being treated in the ward. Although 45 infants were successfully rescued, 10 lost their lives due to severe burns and asphyxia.

Initial investigations revealed that expired fire extinguishers and non-functional fire alarms severely hampered the rescue operations, Some extinguishers had not been refilled since 2019, making them non-operational for years, while others had exceeded their service life. Instead of being functional safety tools, these extinguishers were mere decorative relics and useless in containing the