Bhandara: A fire broke-out at a hospital in Bhandara district in Maharashtra on Saturday at 2 am caused to the death of ten newborn babies due to suffocation. As per the sources 17 babies were admitted at the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) of the four storied hospital in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district at the time of incident.

Seven babies were rescued by the fire brigade officials; those in the outbound ward couldn’t be rescued.  All the infants were between a month and three months old, said a doctor.   A nurse first noticed smoke coming out from the neonatal unit and she alerted the doctors.  “There were fire extinguishers and staff used them while trying to douse the fire. There was too much smoke,” Dr Khandate said. While the cause of the fire is yet to be confirmed, a short circuit is believed to have set off the blaze. Patients admitted to other wards have been shifted.