Fire at Adilabad RIMS newborn unit kills three infants; 24 rescued (2026-09-22)
Three infants died after a late-night fire at the Special Neonatal Care Unit of RIMS Adilabad; 24 others were shifted to hospitals and are stable.
A late-night fire at the Special Neonatal Care Unit (SNCU) of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Adilabad has claimed the lives of three infants, officials and eyewitnesses said.
The fire is reported to have broken out after an air-conditioner caught fire. Three newborns died after reportedly inhaling smoke. One of them, a five-day-old preterm girl on ventilator support, was the daughter of Salim Khan of Ichoda. The other two infants were from Indervelli and Utnoor mandal; they succumbed in the early hours of Tuesday while under treatment at hospitals in Adilabad and Nizamabad.
Around 27 infants were in the SNCU when the incident occurred. The remaining 24 were shifted to various children's hospitals for continued care and were reported to be stable.
Salim Khan said smoke had covered his daughter's face when she was carried out of the unit. He had admitted her hoping she would recover and return home, while his wife was recovering in the maternity ward of another hospital in the town after a Caesarean section.
Eyewitnesses said thick smoke spread quickly through the unit, and that the prompt evacuation of the infants by RIMS staff and attendants of patients prevented further casualties. One attendant said he rushed towards the SNCU on seeing smoke, and that he and others broke open glass windows to let the smoke out before entering the ward with his face covered by his T-shirt. He saw staff and family members carrying infants out in their arms; the babies were later moved to nearby children's hospitals in ambulances.
A woman at the hospital said she heard a loud noise before hurrying to the ward, which she found filled with dark smoke, and brought her preterm granddaughter out before the smoke thickened.
A relative of an infant from Utnoor raised concerns about the need for regular maintenance of the air-conditioning systems in the SNCU, which operates round the clock.
Health Minister C. Damodar Raja Narasimha inspected the accident site on Tuesday.