BAGHDAD — The isolation room for Covid-19 patients at Al-Hussein Hospital, in the city of Nasiriya, Dhi Qar Province, Iraq, caught fire, Monday (12/7) night. A total of 64 people died and around 70 people were injured in the fire.
Quoted from Republika.co.id, the cause of the fire is still being investigated. However, reports say the fire started after the oxygen tank exploded.
The spokesman for the local health department, Dr Ammar al-Zamili said the fire was believed to have started after an oxygen tank exploded in the ICU treating Covid-19 patients.
“The civil defense team managed to control and extinguish the massive fire that broke out at al-Hussein hospital in the city with the help of health workers and neighborhood volunteers,” al-Zamili told CNN.
The new ward for Covid-19 patients has room for 70 beds and was built three months ago.
A health official said that at least 63 people were inside when the fire broke out. “I heard a huge explosion inside the coronavirus ward and then the fire broke out very quickly,” a hospital guard told Reuters. The search operation is still ongoing.
There were also fires in April, when an exploding oxygen tank sparked a fire that killed at least 82 people and injured 110 at a hospital in the capital Baghdad. Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi resigned after the fire.
The Covid-19 pandemic has weighed heavily on Iraq’s health services, which have suffered years of war, neglect and corruption. Iraq has recorded 1.4 million infections and reported more than 17,000 deaths from the coronavirus since the pandemic hit the country last year. Iraq has given at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to more than one million of its roughly 40 million citizens.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ordered the arrest of the head of the hospital for questioning. Reuters news agency reported clashes between demonstrators and police at the scene, and two police vehicles were set on fire.***
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