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Fourteen newborn babies have died after a fire at a maternity ward in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.
The fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital started on Wednesday morning.
An air conditioning unit caught fire and was quickly ignited by oxygen connections, a spokesman for the hospital told the BBC.
It killed 14 of the 15 babies who were in the ward at the time, a spokesperson said. Seven other babies, two men and 10 mothers were also rescued, according to Pakistan’s minister of state for interior.
A cordon remains in place around the medical centre, which is one of the biggest state-run hospitals in the country, while the bodies of all the babies killed have now been handed over to the parents.
A father of one victim criticised the safety measures in place at the hospital, claiming there were “no proper exits” and “all doors were closed”.
Two senior Pakistani senators are also calling for better safety measures at hospitals following the fire, with one saying there is an “urgent need” to modernise safety systems.
The hospital’s executive director tells the BBC the door to the maternity ward was not locked, but that it was manned, citing the need to protect against the possibility of babies being stolen.
Islamabad’s District Magistrate has formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the fire, including the cause and safety measures in place beforehand. It has been tasked with producing a report “within 24 hours”.
Bodies of 14 babies handed over to families – minister
Pakistan’s Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry tells the BBC that all 14 babies who died in the fire were handed over to their families only after their identities had been confirmed.
Chaudhry did not confirm whether DNA testing was used to identify the babies.
He says authorities had completed the identification and confirmation process before handing over the bodies and stresses that the babies were not handed over without confirmation.
He says some families recognised their babies through their wristbands, while others could identify them based on their ages.
He mentions that some babies were only three hours old, while others were three days old.
Chaudhry says Islamabad already has the necessary forensic facilities and that officials used those facilities as part of the identification process.
He says the emergency response time after the call was approximately six to seven minutes and described the overall rescue operation as “excellent” – it follows criticism of the response from people at the scene.
According to Chaudhry, seven babies, two men and 10 mothers were rescued.
He says the babies had been in incubators inside a small nursery, where a doctor, and other medical staff were also present.
What we know about the hospital where the fire happened
The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) is one of the biggest state-run hospitals in the country.
Established in 1985, it serves patients from Islamabad and adjacent cities in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
With more than two dozen medical and surgical specialist units, it has capacity for 1,200 beds and 5,000 outpatients.
It also houses a dedicated children’s hospital, offering specialist paediatric care and training for healthcare professionals.
The hospital has 156 beds in its maternal and child health unit, according to its website.
What we know about the hospital where the fire happened
The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) is one of the biggest state-run hospitals in the country.
Established in 1985, it serves patients from Islamabad and adjacent cities in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
With more than two dozen medical and surgical specialist units, it has capacity for 1,200 beds and 5,000 outpatients.
It also houses a dedicated children’s hospital, offering specialist paediatric care and training for healthcare professionals.
The hospital has 156 beds in its maternal and child health unit, according to its website.
‘Urgent need’ to improve safety at medical centres – senior senator
Pakistani senators are calling for better safety measures at hospitals following the fire at the PIMS maternity ward, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reports.
Deputy chairman of the Senate Syedaal Khan Nasir says there is an “urgent need” to modernise safety systems at medical centres, according to APP.
He also calls for regular reviews of safety systems to prevent fire incidents and stresses the need to “take concrete measures” to address this.
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Chairman of the Senate Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani says “effective safety measures, comprehensive fire-safety systems, and all necessary emergency response arrangements” must be in place in hospitals.
He adds any negligence or lapse in safety measures would be “unacceptable” and urges the relevant authorities to conduct a “thorough and transparent” investigation into the fire, according to APP.
Pakistani prime minister suspends top health official
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has suspended Federal Secretary of Health Aslam Ghauri, a top official in the health department, and removed him from his post, Pakistan’s information ministry says.
The federal secretary of health is a non-political role that reports to the minister who leads the department.
The information ministry says the prime minister has been chairing a high-level meeting on the hospital fire, and has expressed “deep anger” at some officials.
Witnesses claim rescuers were slow to respond
Eyewitnesses have been describing chaotic and harrowing scenes at the hospital, including intense smoke and broken glass, with some complaining that rescuers were slow to respond.
One of them, Khurram Mehmood, told the AFP news agency he lost his three-day-old daughter in the fire and claimed that rescuers took hours to arrive: “We were sitting on the road waiting for help.”
Another witness, Abdul Ghafoor, told the same news agency that the fire had spread “very quickly”.
He said he went into the hospital to try to help save patients but could not reach the maternity ward: “There was thick black smoke inside and patients were trapped… rescue teams arrived after almost two hours.”
Islamabad chief commissioner Sohail Ashraf has said that rescue and police teams reached the scene “immediately” after the emergency call was first made, and then brought the fire under control, AFP reports.
‘That building had no fire security’: Father of victim criticises safety measures
A father of a victim has criticised the safety measures in place at the hospital.
Speaking to the Reuters news agency the man, who did not provide his name, says: “I wasn’t even able to see my daughter, but the condition of the ward is bad.
“I’ve been going there for eight days, the situation was absurd.”
He adds: “That building had no fire security, no proper exits. All doors were closed, only one door was for us to visit our children. They kept the other doors locked because they feared we would come to see our children too often.”
Earlier, the hospital’s executive director told the BBC the door to the maternity ward was not locked, but that it was manned, citing the need to protect against the possibility of babies being stolen.
Islamabad’s District Magistrate has formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the fire, and the terms of reference say it will assess whether adequate and functional fire-safety measures were in place.
Fire investigation committee to assess whether adequate safety measures were in place
As we reported earlier, Islamabad’s District Magistrate has formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the fire and produce a report “within 24 hours”.
We can bring you a bit more now on what the committee has been tasked with finding out.
It has been asked to determine the “exact cause of the fire” as well as assessing “whether adequate and functional fire-safety measures were in place”, according to the Pakistan government.
It has also been directed to evaluate the response time and “effectiveness of rescue and firefighting operations” and “examine any other relevant matter linked to the incident”.
Ex-ministers demand health minister’s resignation
Two former federal ministers, Fawad Chaudhry and Shireen Mazari, have sought the resignation of Pakistani Health Minister Mustafa Kamal over the hospital fire.
Chaudhry says Kamal must take responsibility for the fire that killed 14 newborns. He adds a suspension or transfer to another department would not be enough.
Mizrai says the hospital has been suffering from negligence, mismanagement and corruption.
Hospital director denies door to maternity ward was locked
There have been questions about whether the door to the hospital maternity ward had been locked, trapping the babies inside.
But executive director of PIMS Rana Imran Sikander tells the BBC the door was not locked, but manned instead.
He said this was to protect babies from being stolen from the ward, something that has happened before at government hospitals.
Legal action should be taken against those responsible, president says
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has said those responsible for the fire should be identified and legal action taken.
“Effective fire safety and emergency arrangements should be ensured for the protection of patients in hospitals, especially newborn babies,” he says in a post on social media.
The president also expresses “grief and sorrow” and extends his “heartfelt condolences and sympathy” to the families.
The deaths of newborn babies is a “heart-breaking and irreparable loss”, he says.
SOURCE: BBC NEWS
