66 killed as fire burns through Iraqi hospital’s Covid-19 ward
Oxygen tank blast is likely to have caused the fire at the facility in Nasiriyah city; angry relatives and well-wishers hold protests after tragedy
NASIRIYAH, IRAQ: The death toll from a fire that tore through a Covid-19 hospital in southern Iraq rose to at least 66, health officials said on Tuesday, as authorities faced accusations of negligence from angry relatives and a doctor who works there.
More than 100 others were injured in Monday night’s fire in Nasiriya, which an investigation showed began when sparks from faulty wiring spread to an oxygen tank that then exploded, police and civil defence authorities said - the second such tragedy in three months.
Rescue teams were on Tuesday using a crane to remove the charred and melted remains of the part of the city’s al-hussain hospital where Covid-19 patients were being treated, as relatives gathered nearby.
A medic at the hospital, who declined to give his name and whose Monday shift ended a few hours before the fire broke out, said the absence of basic of safety measures meant it was an accident in the making.
“The hospital lacks a fire sprinkler system or even a simple fire alarm,” he told Reuters. “We complained many times over the past three months that a tragedy could happen any moment from a cigarette stub but every time we get the same answer from health officials: ‘we don’t have enough money’.”
In April, a similar explosion at Baghdad Covid-19 hospital killed at least 82 and injured 110. The head of Iraq’s Human Rights Commission said Monday’s blast showed how ineffective safety measures still were in a health system crippled by war and sanctions. “To have such a tragic incident repeated few months later means that still no (sufficient) measures have been taken to prevent them,” Ali Bayati said.
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