Baghdad: More than 80 people died in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad after fire ripped apart Ibn Khatib hospital treating coronavirus patients.
The blaze erupted saturday night and engulfed the medical facility. In the incident at least 100 other have received injuries.
According to BBC, the fire caused oxygen tanks to explode triggering an unprecedented fire and blaze. Firefighters scrambled to control flames as people tried to flee from the building.
CNN report said that many of the victims were on respirators and were burned or suffocated in the resulting inferno.
The health ministry said 82 people were killed and 110 wounded, while the Iraqi Human Rights Commission said 28 of the victims were patients who had to be taken off ventilators to escape the flames.
The blaze tore across multiple floors in the middle of the night, as dozens of relatives were visiting patients in the intensive care unit, a medical source was quoted by CNN.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Sunday suspended the health minister and ordered an investigation into the tragedy.
The report quoted head of Iraq’s Civil Defence, Gen Kadhim Bohan, saying the fire had broken out in the hospital’s intensive-care unit, on a floor “designated for pulmonary resuscitation”.
30 patients, BBC report reads, were in the intensive care unit, which was reserved for the most severe cases of Covid-19 in Baghdad.
