The death toll from a fire that tore through a coronavirus hospital in southern Iraq rose to 66, health officials said on Tuesday, as authorities faced accusations of negligence from grieving relatives and a doctor who works there.
More than 100 others were injured in Monday night’s fire in Nassiriya, which an investigation showed began when sparks from faulty wiring spread to an oxygen tank that then exploded, police and civil defence authorities said – the second such tragedy in three months.
Rescue teams were on Tuesday using a heavy crane to remove the charred and melted remains of the part of the city’s al-Hussain hospital where Covid-19 patients were being treated, as relatives gathered nearby.
A medic at the hospital, who declined to give his name and whose Monday shift ended a few hours before the fire broke out, said the absence of basic of safety measures meant it was an accident in the making.
“The hospital lacks a fire sprinkler system or even a simple fire alarm,” he told the media.
“We complained many times over the past three months that a tragedy could happen any moment from a cigarette stub but every time we get the same answer from health officials: ‘we don’t have enough money’.”
he manager of the hospital was also suspended and ordered to be arrested, the statement added.
Haydar al-Zamili, the local health authority’s spokesperson, said early Tuesday morning that 52 bodies were retrieved and another 22 people were wounded in the latest toll, after the fire had “ripped through the COVID-19 isolation ward”.
“The victims died of burns and the search is continuing,” he said, noting that there were fears victims could still be trapped inside the building. The ward had space for 70 beds.
As rescuers combed the smoke-charred building in search of more bodies, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi held urgent meetings with senior ministers and ordered the suspension and arrest of health and civil defence managers in Nassiriya, his office said in a statement.
“The catastrophe of Al-Hussein Hospital is clear proof of the failure to protect the lives of Iraqis, and it is time to put an end to this,” wrote Mohamed al-Halbousi, Iraq’s Parliament Speaker, on Twitter.
Iraq’s interior ministry said on Facebook late Monday that the fire tore through temporary structures erected next to the main building, but did not specify the cause.
