FIRE KILLS 82 AT BAGHDAD HOSPITAL DEDICATED TO COVID
A fire sparked by an exploding oxygen cylinder killed at least 82 people, most of them COVID-19 patients and their relatives, at a Baghdad hospital late Saturday, a devastating example of the pandemic’s impact on a country riddled with corruption, mismanagement and a legacy of decrepit infrastructure.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry said that 110 more people were hurt and that the death toll was expected to rise as more patients who suffered severe burns succumbed to their injuries.
The hospital, located in one of Baghdad’s poorer neighborhoods and dedicated to treating severe COVID-19 cases, had no smoke detectors, sprinkler system or fire hoses, said Maj. Gen. Khadhim Bohan, head of Iraq’s civil defense forces. And the fire spread even more quickly because of flammable material used in false ceilings in the intensive care ward, Bohan said.
“If there had been smoke detectors, the situation would have been totally different,” he told the state-run Iraqiya TV.
Bohan said that civil defense had inspected the hospital last year as part of 18,500 technical inspections but that its recommendations for safety measures had been ignored.
Doctors and rescuers described a chaotic scene at the hospital, which was crowded with relatives of patients. Officially, there is a ban on most visitors to avoid the spread of infection. Because of a lack of nursing staff, Iraqi hospitals, even in COVID-19 wards, depend on relatives to help look after patients.