At least 14 newborn babies died in a fire that swept through a hospital ward in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. The blaze erupted on the third floor of the mother and child unit at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), a prominent state-run hospital.
The fire began in an air conditioning unit, according to a hospital spokesperson. Fifteen infants were in the ward when the fire broke out; one baby was rescued. The deceased babies were being kept in incubators or were reliant on oxygen equipment, which can accelerate fires.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has suspended Federal Secretary of Health Aslam Ghauri, a senior health official, and expressed deep anger at certain officials during a high-level meeting convened to discuss the incident. Witnesses described chaotic scenes, with thick smoke and broken glass, and some complained about a delayed rescue response.
One witness, Khurram Mehmood, told AFP that his three-day-old daughter died in the fire and alleged that rescuers took hours to arrive. Another witness, Abdul Ghafoor, told AFP the fire spread rapidly and that rescuers arrived approximately two hours after the incident began.
