At least 14 newborn babies died after a fire broke out in the maternity ward of a major hospital in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, the prime minister said.
The fire began after an air conditioning unit exploded on Wednesday morning in the gynaecology ward of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), one of the country’s leading hospitals.
The nursery housed 15 newborns at the time of the incident, of whom only one was rescued, said hospital officials. The fire has now been extinguished and teams are carrying out cooling operations at the site, rescue officials told local broadcaster GeoTV, which reported a higher death toll of 15 infants.
Emergency response teams rushed to the hospital earlier to bring the fire under control, evacuate patients and secure the affected area.
Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi and prime minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed sorrow over the fire.
“A tragedy involving children is an irreparable loss,” said Mr Sharif, who ordered an immediate investigation.
The Islamabad district magistrate appointed a multiagency fact-finding committee with directions to submit a report within 24 hours.
The panel will investigate the cause of the fire and its spread, determine whether adequate fire-safety measures were in place and evaluate the emergency response, a government notification said.
President Asif Ali Zardari also offered condolences to the families, describing the deaths as “heartbreaking and an irreparable loss.”
Mr Zardari called for those responsible to be identified and dealt with under the law and urged hospitals to ensure effective fire-safety measures and emergency procedures, particularly in wards caring for newborns.
The deaths of the children sent a wave of shock and grief across the country.
Police were deployed at the hospital as grieving parents and relatives gathered, some weeping while others called for accountability and demanded answers about how the fire began and whether the nursery had adequate firefighting equipment.
Mohammad Sami said his wife gave birth three days earlier and the baby was receiving intensive care in the nursery when the fire erupted.
“I don’t know what to say or whom to blame,” Mr Sami said through tears.
“I have lost my child.”
"Give me my child," a mother identified by her first naem Javeria, who lost her newborn, said outside the hospital, where ambulances had gathered. "I want justice."
Mudasir, another parent who lost a child, said all but one of the doors to the ward were locked and that there was "no fire security" in the ward.
The incident is among the deadliest hospital fires in recent years in the country, where government healthcare is subsidised but facilities are under-resourced and overburdened while watchdogs have frequently criticised state-run facilities as mismanaged.
Hospital officials told families that the bodies would be released after the necessary paperwork was completed, she said.
Syed Mustafa Kamal, the health minister, told local Geo News channel that he was traveling from Karachi to Islamabad to personally oversee the investigation.
The death toll was reported by GeoTV and other local media citing sources within the rescue team. There has been no formal statement from the hospital or other authorities on the number of casualties.
Pims hospital in Islamabad recently received global media attention after former prime minister Imran Khan was brought there from jail for a court-mandated medical assessment.
Pakistan has a poor fire safety record, compounded by a lack of regulatory enforcement. Wednesday’s incident comes three months after at least 43 people were injured by a massive fire at a Pakistan Customs warehouse in southwestern Balochistan province.
In January, a huge fire swept through shops and warehouses at the Gul Plaza in Karachi in which at least 72 people were killed. The fire broke out at a shopping plaza which houses 1,200 shops in a multi-storey complex on MA Jinnah Road in Karachi's commercial Saddar area on 17 January, gutted the building and took nearly a week for the firefighters to bring it under control.
In November last year, at least 18 workers were killed, and 21 were injured after an explosion at a glue-making factory in Faisalabad city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Police said they had arrested the factory’s manager and were searching for the owner, who fled shortly after the explosion.
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