Jhansi fire: Yakoob Mansuri's twins will never know their father is a hero, 7 other babies will

Yakoob Mansuri was outside somewhere while his newborn twin daughters were in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, when a woman who had been feeding her child inside the SNCU (sick newborn care unit) rushed out screaming about a fire, on 16 November, Saturday.

As the hospital was engulfed in smoke, Mansuri rushed towards the ward, broke open the window of the outer unit, and began handing over babies kept in the outer unit through the window.

He saved seven babies, but couldn't save his own.

Narendra Singh Sengar, principal of the medical college, told The Print that of the 49 babies admitted to the hospital, 11 were . While 10 died on the spot, another baby died during treatment in the paediatric unit.

“There was only a small opening to the inner unit of the SNCU. The entrance is barely large enough for one person to go through. We started feeling nauseous within minutes. How could the babies have endured it?” the 27-year-old Mansuri asked.

Mansuri, an almirah maker from Hamirpur’s Rath tehsil, joined Pushpendra Yadav, Lalit Yadav, and Kripal Singh to save several newborns. Later, he recalled the thick smoke and flames that thwarted all rescue attempts, “It was a massive fire that no one could brave,” he said.

Because their daughters were suffering from breathing trouble, Mansuri and his wife Najma Bano were advised to seek specialised care by the Orai district hospital.

Mansuri recounted to The Print that many babies had died by the time the fire brigade arrived- "The inner unit had a narrow door, barely wide enough for one person to enter at a time. Within minutes, we started vomiting. How could the babies have endured it? They were gone."

Bano and Manusuri were informed much later that their twins had passed away. “We had been repeatedly requesting the hospital staff to let us see our babies. We never imagined, not even in our worst dreams, that we would see our babies in the condition they were in at the post-mortem house,” Mansuri said.

The fire tragedy at the state-run hospital brought back horrific memories of the in which seven newborns were charred to death on the night of 25 May.

As they struggle to cope with their trauma, parents of the deceased infants and those who survived say such incidents can stop only when the administration shows sensitivity and prioritises safety on the premises.

An investigation suggests that a short circuit triggered the fire, and the presence of oxygen cylinders aggravated it. The preliminary investigation also revealed that the fire extinguishers in the NICU had expired four years ago, raising as yet unanswered questions about safety protocols at the hospital.

The state government has formed a four-member committee to probe into the incident, tasked with identifying the actual cause of the fire and concluding if negligence catalysed the incident.