The death toll from a catastrophic blaze that erupted in a COVID-19 hospital ward in southern Iraq rose to 64 on Tuesday, Iraqi medical officials said.
Two health officials said more than 100 people were also injured in the fire that struck the Hussein Teaching Hospital in the city of Nasiriya on Monday.
Anguished relatives looked for signs of their loved ones Tuesday morning, searching through debris, charred blankets and belongings inside the torched remains of the ward. The blackened skull of a female patient from the ward was found.
Many wept, and angrily blamed both the provincial government of Dhi Qar, where Nasiriya is located, and the federal government in Baghdad for years of mismanagement and neglect.
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“The whole state system has collapsed, and who paid the price? The people inside here. These people have paid the price,” said Haidar Askari, who was at the scene of the blaze.
Overnight, firefighters and rescuers — many with just flashlights and using blankets to extinguish small fires still smoldering in places — had frantically searched through the ward in the darkness. As dawn broke, bodies covered with sheets were laid on the ground outside the hospital.
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Earlier, officials had said the fire was caused by an electric short circuit, but provided no more details. Another official said the blaze erupted when an oxygen cylinder exploded. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
The new ward, opened just three months ago, contained 70 beds.
Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi chaired an emergency meeting in the wake of the fire and ordered the suspension and arrest of the health director in Dhi Qar, as well as of hospital director and the city’s director of civil defense. A government investigation was also launched.
In the nearby holy city of Najaf, mourners prepared to bury some of the victims.
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It was the second time a large fire killed COVID-19 patients in an Iraqi hospital this year. At least 82 people died at Ibn al-Khatib hospital in Baghdad in April after an oxygen tank exploded, igniting a blaze.
That incident brought to light widespread negligence and systemic mismanagement in Iraq’s hospitals. Doctors have decried lax safety rules, especially around the oxygen cylinders.
On Monday, Ammar Zamili, spokesman for the Dhi Qar health department, told local media that there were at least 63 patients in the ward when the fire began. Maj. Gen. Khalid Bohan, head of Iraq’s civil defense, said in comments to the media that the building was constructed from flammable materials and prone to fire.
Iraq is in the midst of another severe COVID-19 surge. Daily coronavirus rates peaked last week at 9,000 new cases.
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After decades of war and sanctions, Iraq’s health sector has struggled to contain the virus. Over 17,000 people have died of COVID-19 among 1.4 million confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.