Iraqis on Sunday demanded officials be sacked after at least 82 people died and 110 were wounded in a fire at a COVID-19 hospital, in a country with long-dilapidated health infrastructure.
“The interior ministry announces the death of 82 people and injury of 110 in the Ibn al-Khatib fire accident,” it said in a statement carried by state media.
The fire at Baghdad’s Ibn al-Khatib hospital started with an explosion caused by “a fault in the storage of oxygen cylinders,” medical sources told AFP.
Flames spread quickly across multiple floors in the middle of the night, as dozens of relatives were at the bedsides of the 30 patients in the hospital’s intensive care unit where most severe COVID-19 cases are treated, a medical source said.
“The hospital had no fire protection system and false ceilings allowed the flames to spread to highly flammable products,” the civil defense said.
“The majority of the victims died because they had to be moved and were taken off ventilators, while the others were suffocated by the smoke,” it added.
The civil defense said its members “rescued 90 people out of 120 patients and their relatives.”
Iraq’s hospitals have been worn down by decades of conflict and poor investment, with shortages in medicines and hospital beds.
The incident sparked outrage on social media and Prime Minister Mustafa al-Khademi called for an investigation into the cause of the blaze, and declared three days of national mourning.
After daybreak, dozens of tall oxygen cylinders that had been evacuated could be seen lined up outside the building, alongside gurneys and scattered debris, an AFP photograph said.
Videos on social media showed firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze as patients and their relatives tried to flee the building.
Amir, 35, told AFP he “saved his brothers who were at the hospital by the skin of his teeth.”
“It was the people who got the wounded out.”
More than 200 patients in all were rescued, according to the health ministry, which pledged to release an official toll of the dead and wounded later.
The fire—which according to several sources was caused by negligence often linked to endemic corruption in Iraq—sparked anger on social media, with a hashtag demanding the health minister be sacked trending on Twitter.
Baghdad Governor Mohammed Jaber called on the health ministry “to establish a commission of enquiry so that those who did not do their jobs may be brought to justice.”
In a statement, the government’s human rights commission said the incident was “a crime against patients exhausted by Covid-19 who put their lives in the hands of the health ministry and its institutions and instead of being treated, perished in flames.”
The commission called on the prime minister to fire Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi and “bring him to justice.”
Kadhemi responded by calling for “an investigation”—echoing President Barham Saleh and parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi – and said he wanted results “within 24 hours.”