Fire at a hospital where coronavirus patients being treated in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, has killed 82 people.
The fire that broke out at the Ibn Khatib hospital on Saturday night wounded over 100 people.
According to reports, an oxygen tank exploded accidentally, causing the fire.
The fire caused many of the oxygen tanks designated to support the #COVID19 patients in the hospital to explode. #Baghdad so far dozens of victims have been reported. pic.twitter.com/OAC8Jt3jq3
— Steven Nabil (@thestevennabil) April 24, 2021
Firefighters scramble to put out the blaze as residents evacuate the house, according to social media videos.
Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Iraq’s prime minister, has demanded an urgent inquiry into the causes of the “tragic accident.”
The fire broke out in the hospital’s intensive-care unit, on a floor “designated for pulmonary resuscitation,” according to Iraq’s Civil Defense chief, Gen Kadhim Bohan.
A hospital source told the AFP news agency that about “30 patients were in the intensive care unit” in Baghdad, which was reserved for the most acute cases of Covid-19.
Many of the patients were sent to the nearest hospitals.
Iraq’s Civil Defense said the fire was under control by the early hours of Sunday morning.
Governor of Baghdad Mohammed Jaber repeated Prime Minister Nouri al-call Maliki’s for an immediate inquiry to see whether anybody could be “brought to justice” for neglect.
The government’s human rights commission called the event “a crime against patients exhausted by Covid-19” in a statement.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought Iraq’s hospitals to their breaking point, compounding the stresses caused by years of conflict, neglect, and corruption.
Covid infections have been on the rise in Iraq since February, and the overall number has now surpassed one million.
After the outbreak, the health ministry has reported 1,025,288 cases and 15,217 deaths.
Last month, the country began a vaccination drive and had collected nearly 650,000 doses, the majority of which came from Covax, a multinational vaccination exchange network.
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