At least 50 dead in Iraq after fire sweeps through coronavirus ward
At least 50 people have died and dozens were injured after a fire blazed through a Covid-19 ward at a hospital in southern Iraq on Monday.
Reports suggested an oxygen tank explosion may have led to the fire at the al-Hussein Teaching Hospital in Nasiriyah city, even as authorities on Tuesday said they were investigating the cause. Some reports also said an electric short circuit could have been responsible.
The three-month-old ward contained 70 beds, according to the hospital authorities.
At least 52 have died in the blaze, with those who died suffering severe burn injuries, while dozens of those injured are critical, reported news agency AFP.
Ammar al-Zamili, spokesman for the health department of Dhi Qar governorate – of which Nasiryah is the provincial capital – was quoted as saying there were at least 63 Covid-19 patients inside the ward when the fire started.
A search operation is also underway for several who are said to be missing.
Reuters reported that the rescue workers were carrying charred bodies of the victims out of the hospital, while several others coughed incessantly because of the thick smoke from the fire.
“I heard a big explosion inside the coronavirus wards and then the fire had erupted very quickly,” news agency Reuters quoted hospital guard Ali Muhsin as saying.
Major general Khalid Bohan, head of Iraq’s civil defence, was quoted by local media as saying that the hospital was constructed from “flammable materials” and was thus “prone to fire”.
Families of the fire victims, meanwhile, began protesting outside the hospital, asking for justice. Protesters clashed with the police and set two police vehicles on fire, according to Reuters.
Barham Salih, Iraq’s president, in a tweet, condemned the mismanagement and corruption pervading the nation’s health institutions.
The country’s prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has ordered the arrest of the hospital’s head.
Mohamed al-Halbousi, the parliament’s speaker, tweeted that the fire was “clear proof of the failure to protect Iraqi lives, and it is time to put an end to this catastrophic failure.”
The incident has turned the media’s attention to the mismanagement and negligence of authorities in several hospitals, said local reports pointing out lax safety rules “especially around oxygen cylinders” in hospitals across Iraq.
This is the second time during the pandemic when a fire has blazed through a hospital in the country.
Earlier, at least 82 coronavirus patients were killed when a fire engulfed a Covid-19 ward at Ibn al-Khateeb hospital in national capital Baghdad in April. Reports at the time said an oxygen tank explosion had led to the fire.
Iraq’s healthcare system is struggling to cope with a severe Covid-19 wave across the country that has had more than a million infections and 17,592 deaths. Just last week, Iraq saw a daily peak of 9,000 positive cases in a day.