A hearth erupted in a hospital maternity ward in Islamabad on Wednesday killing 14 infants, Pakistan authorities mentioned, blaming a defective air conditioner for the blaze.
The daybreak hearth broke out on the third ground of the Mom and Baby Well being Ward on the capital’s premier public hospital Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the Islamabad district workplace mentioned in a press release.
The assertion gave a dying rely of 14, all of whom have been infants, in accordance with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Nineteen individuals, together with seven youngsters, have been rescued, Deputy Inside Minister Talal Chaudhry mentioned.
Well being Minister Mustafa Kamal informed reporters exterior the hospital that CCTV footage confirmed {that a} “spark from the air conditioner fell, and the fireplace unfold inside a minute”.
He mentioned 26 hearth extinguishers have been used to attempt to extinguish the flames however that there have been no water sprinklers within the ward.
Witnesses described chaotic and harrowing scenes, together with intense smoke and damaged glass, a gradual response from emergency companies and guards reportedly stopping individuals from leaving the constructing.
Khurram Mehmood, 40, informed AFP he misplaced his three-day-old daughter within the blaze and that rescuers took hours to reach.
“My spouse was within the ward. They took everybody out. We have been sitting on the highway ready for assist,” he mentioned.
The door to the neonatal intensive care unit was locked, in accordance with Jaweria, a lady who mentioned she additionally misplaced her toddler.
“I don’t imagine this. Give me my baby again… Why did the docs depart the youngsters there?”
Witness Abdul Ghafoor informed AFP that he went into the hospital to save lots of sufferers however couldn’t attain the maternity ward.
“The hearth unfold in a short time. There have been infants as younger as sooner or later previous,” he mentioned.
“There was thick black smoke inside and sufferers have been trapped… Rescue groups arrived after virtually two hours (after the fireplace began).”
One other witness, who didn’t give her identify, mentioned hospital safety “weren’t letting them out and the guards have been stopping them”.
“Individuals needed to break the door down and rescue groups needed to break the home windows to regulate the fireplace,” she added.
The Islamabad chief commissioner, Sohail Ashraf, mentioned the emergency name was made simply earlier than 7:00 am (0200 GMT), and emergency responders reached the scene “instantly” and introduced the fireplace below management.
Ran for our lives
AFP reporters noticed a nurse name out the names of infants who had perished within the hearth as households gathered exterior.
Different sufferers streamed exterior, their faces coated in soot, with one man holding a new child in his arms.
A mom with black residue from the smoke on her arms stood crying exterior the hospital as she held her 10-day-old child in her arms.
“Individuals have been screaming. There was black smoke. We ran for our lives. Thank God my child is secure,” Shagufta Parveen, the mom, informed AFP.
Funerals already began to happen on Wednesday afternoon, as Islamic burials often occur inside 24 hours of dying.
AFP journalists noticed a tiny physique shrouded in white being carried by way of the streets of the close by metropolis of Rawalpindi, adopted by a solemn line of mourners, earlier than a funeral prayer.
Prime Minister Sharif known as for an investigation and mentioned the “strictest doable motion” ought to be taken in opposition to these discovered to be accountable.
He sacked Well being Secretary Aslam Ghori, the nation’s high civil servant for the division, a press release from his workplace mentioned.
Chaudhry, the deputy inside minister, informed media exterior the hospital that authorities would launch a probe, and the our bodies of the 14 infants have been handed over to their dad and mom.
However he denied that rescuers didn’t arrive shortly sufficient on the general public vacation, as a number of dad and mom and witnesses mentioned.
“What occurred is gloomy, however there was no negligence when it got here to the rescue operations,” he mentioned, including that groups reached the hospital in six minutes.
“What occurred is to be inquired, the place the hospital lacked amenities.”
The UN youngsters’s company UNICEF mentioned it was “deeply saddened” by the deaths, and known as for an “pressing assessment and strengthening of fireside prevention and security requirements throughout well being amenities”.
Fires in massive buildings are frequent in Pakistan, typically attributable to poor security legal guidelines and constructing codes in addition to lax enforcement.
In January, greater than 65 individuals have been killed in a procuring centre hearth within the port metropolis of Karachi.
No less than 11 individuals have been killed in one other shopping center hearth in Karachi in 2023.
In 2012, at the very least 250 labourers died at a garment manufacturing unit in Karachi.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
