Bhandara: "It was 1.47am when I got a call from a security guard at the general hospital. I reached the hospital gate and met Rahul Gupta and hospital staffer Munna Thakur. We all went to the Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) on the first floor and on opening the door, saw it was burning like hell," narrated Rajkumar ‘Prince’ Dahekar, one of the five youngsters who saved the lives of seven newborns at the district general hospital in Bhandara, where 10 infants were choked to death in the wee hours of Saturday.
The youths carried these seven babies in their arms, used fire tenders’ ladders and broke open another door on the first floor in order to rescue them. The fire that killed 10 babies in the ‘Out Born’ section might have killed seven more in the ‘In Born’ section, had these youths not reached the spot in time.
Rahul Gupta, Rajkumar ‘Prince’ Dahekar, Gaurav Rehpade, Shivam Madawi and Ajit Kurzekar are the names of these daredevil heroes, who risked their lives to help save the babies. Rahul and Prince are private ambulance operators, and Gaurav and Shivam are security personnel. Ajit is a hospital attendant.
Narrating the harrowing moments, Rahul stated, "The SNCU room was filled with smoke and fire. We tried to venture inside but retreated due to burning sensation in eyes and limbs. Pieces of shattered glass were lying everywhere on the floor. We could see red flames around the oxygen supply inside the room and hear an explosive sound.”
Meanwhile, he added, “The fire tenders had also reached the spot. We all came out of the main building and used a fire tending vehicle’s ladder to gain access to the back door of the SNCU. We broke open the back door to enter the SNC unit."
Prince, who was with Rahul, explained, "There are two partitions in one SNC unit. The In Born section is for neonatal children born at civil hospital, while the Out Born section is for severely ill neonatal children born in rural hospitals or primary health centres.”
He added, “We rescued all 7 babies from In Born, but couldn’t reach the 10 babies in Out Born section as there was heavy smoke and fire in that area. We also saw two machines on fire along with the babies. It was heart-rending."
"The smoke was so intense that we felt breathless," said Rahul, adding that the security guards and hospital staffers helped them in rescue. "We picked up the babies with our bare hands, broke open another exit door on the first floor and ran down the stairs to safeguard the 7 babies," Prince added.
Electricity inspectors and fire college experts reached the spot to ascertain the reasons of fire. Prima facie it is assumed that the machine kept near the air conditioning system caught fire first, due to short circuit.