Disaster in Pakistan: 14 infants perished in a hospital fire

At least 14 infants perished in a fire at a hospital in Pakistan, as reported today, Wednesday, by the Reuters news agency. The fire broke out in the early morning hours at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the largest hospital in the capital, Islamabad.

The fire started in the neonatal ward of the hospital. There were no other fatalities. 15 infants were in the ward where the fire broke out, only one of them survived: "A hospital doctor rescued him," said Dr. Aniza Jalil, a spokesperson for the hospital.

At this time, the possibility that a short circuit in an air conditioner at the hospital led to the deadly fire is being investigated, but fire department investigators have not yet definitively confirmed the cause. One reason the blaze spread quickly was the oxygen tubes and incubators that were in the wing. The police announced that, in all likelihood, identification of the victims will be possible only through DNA tests.

From the hospital, it was stated that firefighters arrived at the scene quickly and gained control of the fire within a short time. Parents who were at the hospital were furious. Khurram Mahmood, who lost his three-day-old daughter in the disaster, told the AFP news agency about the slow response he received from rescue forces: "We sat on the road and waited for help. It took the teams long hours to arrive."

This fire at the hospital in Islamabad is the deadliest fire to have occurred in a hospital in Pakistan, and this is despite the hospital's claims regarding the swiftness of the rescue teams and the rapid functioning of the medical staff.

The severe disaster sparked widespread outrage and a wave of criticism from parents and public figures, who accused the hospital management of negligence and poor safety conditions. The father of one of the girls who perished said that the escape doors in the wing were locked and there were no accessible emergency exits, while the hospital management claimed in response that the doors were secured by guards to prevent the theft of infants and were not locked. At the same time, former government ministers called for the immediate resignation of the Minister of Health.

Following the incident, the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, instructed to take legal action against anyone found responsible for the failure. Alongside this, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the provincial governor ordered the establishment of a special investigative committee, which was required to submit its findings within 24 hours and examine the causes of the blaze, the integrity of the fire extinguishing systems, and the speed of the rescue teams' response.