GUWAHATI, Nov 19: Fourteen newborn babies admitted at the special newborn care unit of Goalpara Civil Hospital were moved to safety by the hospital staff after a fire broke out in the unit on Friday morning, sources said.
Reportedly, the fire which broke out from a corner in the unit was doused by fire tenders before it could spread to other areas of the unit.
However, while the exact cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, it is suspected that it could be triggered by a short circuit of the air conditioner installed in the unit.
Hospital authorities said that all the babies, who were admitted in the unit before the fire broke out, are safe while some of them have been admitted to newborn care units of private hospitals in Goalpara town and given necessary treatment.
It may be mentioned that as soon as the nurses of the hospital came to know about the fire, they reportedly broke open a window and began evacuating the infants.
This is the second incident of a fire breaking out at an intensive care unit for infants in a government hospital in Assam in less than a month.
Earlier this month, a short circuit-triggered fire broke out at the paediatric ward of Assam Medical College Hospital (AMCH) in Dibrugarh.
Fortunately, all the infants in the ward were safely evacuated.
