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India Mourns Infants And Others Killed In Fires At Hospital and Amusement Park

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

NEW DELHI (Worthy News) – Much of India plunged into mourning Sunday with authorities confirming that seven newborn babies lost their lives after their New Delhi neonatal clinic was engulfed in flames.

Hours earlier, in the western Indian city of Rajkot, a packed amusement park arcade of trampolines and bowling lanes had turned into an inferno, killing dozens, authorities said.

Both blazes highlighted concerns about non-compliance with safety rules across India, the world’s most populous nation of more than 1.4 billion people.

Commentators say that India’s fire brigades face considerable gaps in the numbers of stations, personnel, and equipment. Government investigations after mass-casualty disasters unearth shortcomings, but critics say there is little follow-up amid widespread corruption.

Though the number has decreased over the past decade, more than 20 fire-related deaths occur daily in India, according to government statistics.

Many fires — particularly in crowded urban centers — are caused by short circuits, an alarming prospect as India faces intense heat waves that strain electrical wires.

R.C. Sharma, a former fire service chief in Delhi, told the media that one major problem is that fire regulations go unenforced.

FIRE RESPONSE

Another is that fire-response resources have failed to keep up with urbanization, which is happening rapidly and often without regard to safety.

That became clear in New Delhi, where there was little left of the two-story hospital building on Sunday morning after the blaze that killed the newborns whose lives had just begun. Reporters noticed its burned facade, a charred spiral staircase, and oxygen cylinders covered in soot.

There were similar scenes at the amusement park arcade in Rajkot in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

The families of those who had come to enjoy a discounted offer of “all-you-can-play” to celebrate the start of summer vacation were now forced to identify bodies among the at least 27 dead, many of them children too charred to be recognizable.

A ferocious blaze engulfed a structure, with black smoke pouring into the sky of Rajkot, footage showed.

Prabhav Joshi, the Rajkot district collector, said that dozens had died in the inferno, “mostly children,” and another half-dozen were hospitalized.

“The police have detained four persons associated with the game zone for questioning,” he said. “We are trying to get more details about the owners of the facility.”

HUNDREDS INSIDE

More than 300 people were in the two-story structure at the TRP amusement and theme park when the blaze broke out as it was a summer holiday weekend, Rajkot fire officer Ilesh Kher told reporters.

“People got trapped as a temporary structure at the facility collapsed near the entrance, making it difficult for the people to come out,” he stressed.

The flames reportedly spread rapidly because of its flammable material. Pictures from the scene showed a corrugated metal structure, mainly in ruins.

It took nearly an hour to douse the fire, with about a dozen ambulances carrying the injured to hospital.

Fire department officials said a short-circuit was suspected as the cause, and police at the site said the bodies of the dead were heavily burned, making identification difficult.

Gujarat is the home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wrote on social media platform X that he was “Extremely distressed by the fire mishap in Rajkot.” He added that his “thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones. Prayers for the injured.”

However, his and other messages of condolence and announcements of arrests, the back-to-back disasters this weekend were the latest reminder that systemic change is needed to make this most populous, primarily Hindu nation, safer.