Nine dead in Romanian hospital fire

AT least nine people have died in a fire at a hospital in Romania’s port city of Constanta.

All other patients had been evacuated from Constanta’s Hospital for Infectious Diseases and the fire had been extinguished by mid-morning on Friday, Romania’s emergency situations inspectorate said.

The health ministry said that 113 patients were in the medical unit of the hospital, 10 of whom were intensive care unit patients. Only one patient from the ICU survived.

Romania has had two other deadly hospital fires within the past year, which has raised concerns about the country’s ageing hospital infrastructure.

Last November, 10 died after a fire tore through an intensive care unit for Covid-19 patients in the northern town of Piatra Neamt. Another blaze in January engulfed a ward at Bucharest’s Matei Bals hospital, killing five.

President Klaus Iohannis said that the Romanian state “has failed in its fundamental mission to protect its citizens”.

He said. “It is a terrible new drama that confirms the deficient infrastructure of the Romanian health system.”

COSTIN DINCA Medical staff support a patient breathing through an oxygen mask after a fire in the COVID-19 ICU section of the Hospital for Infectious Diseases in the Black Sea port of Constanta, Romania