One radiant warmer, three newborns, oxygen tubing on fire at 1.50 a.m.; one girl dies after Jabalpur referral — cause of death still contested.

A fire broke out in the Special Newborn Care Unit and neonatal intensive care unit of the government District Hospital at Chhindwara around 1.50 a.m. on Saturday, 22 August 2026. Three newborns on the same radiant warmer suffered burns. They were referred to Jabalpur Government Medical College because Chhindwara had no paediatric surgeon. One girl later died there. A Collector-ordered probe is on. These are hospital and district facts as notified. They are not a closed negligence finding.

Paediatrician Anshul Lamba said a short circuit in the warmer’s filament coil threw sparks onto oxygen tubing and a foam mattress. Staff pulled the three infants out in about fifteen seconds. Civil surgeon Kanchan Dubey said thirty-three children were in that unit, three on the same warmer; staff moved the other thirty. She denied negligence and said the machine was on annual maintenance. Collector Harendra Narayan Mishra ordered a probe through the civil surgeon. An agency in Bhopal told the district the machine had annual maintenance on 10 August with no fault detected; engineers were to inspect.

Collector Mishra said the deceased girl had been born with dextrocardia. The other two infants were reported stable; one was cited with congenital diaphragmatic hernia. On cause of death, public accounts conflict and this desk will not pick a side. One account reports an autopsy finding that death was due to congenital complications, not burns. Other accounts report death after referral with burns. Both lines are recorded. Neither is treated here as the final medical-legal truth.

Overcrowding is on the Collector’s own numbers. Sixty-three infants were in the neonatal intensive care unit — thirty inborn and thirty-three outborn in the unit where the fire occurred — against only twenty-seven warmer machines, so two or three children per cradle. Relative Roopmal Verma alleged the room was full of smoke and alleged staff demanded money. Anand Verma alleged negligence. The hospital called the event an accident. Kin allegations and the hospital’s accident line both stand as claims. This desk will not adjudicate them.

Chhindwara holds the hospital. Jabalpur holds the referral college. Form B and any poll date are not notified. Until the probe and any medical-legal report close, the public ledger is a 1.50 a.m. warmer-coil fire, three burned newborns, one death after Jabalpur referral, a dextrocardia note from the Collector, conflicting public lines on whether death was congenital or burn-linked, sixty-three infants on twenty-seven warmers, and kin allegations of negligence against a hospital accident defence. Cause of death remains unresolved on this page.