Fire kills more than 80 people at Baghdad hospital, including COVID-19 patients in ICU

Iraq's Interior Ministry said Sunday more than 80 people died and more than 100 were injured in a catastrophic fire that broke out in the intensive care unit of a Baghdad hospital tending to severe coronavirus patients.

Negligence on the part of hospital authorities has been blamed for the Saturday night fire, which initial reports suggest was caused when an oxygen cylinder exploded in the ward of Ibn al-Khatib Hospital. Iraq's prime minister fired key hospital officials hours after the catastrophic incident.

Among the dead were at least 28 patients on ventilators battling severe symptoms of the virus, tweeted Ali al-Bayati, a spokesperson for the country's independent Human Rights Commission. The commission is a semi-official body.

Firefighters rushed to battle the flames that raged across the second floor of the hospital. Civil defence teams put out flames until the early hours of the morning.

Ambulances transported dozens of wounded. The Health Ministry said at least 200 people were rescued from the scene.

Doctors at the scene were frazzled by the chaos unfolding around them. They said numerous burned bodies were carried out by paramedics from the hospital floor.

The fire came as Iraq grapples with a severe second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Daily virus cases now average about 8,000, the highest since Iraq began recording infection rates early last year. At least 15,200 people have died from COVID-19 in Iraq among a total of at least 100,000 confirmed cases.

In response to the fire, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi fired the director-general of the Baghdad Health Department in the al-Rusafa area, where the hospital is located. He also fired the director of Ibn al-Khatib Hospital and its director of engineering and maintenance, according to a statement from the Health Ministry and his office.

After the fire first broke out, al-Kadhimi held an emergency meeting at the headquarters of the Baghdad Operations Command, which co-ordinates Iraqi security forces, according to a statement on his Twitter account.

In the meeting, he said the incident amounted to negligence.

"Negligence in such matters is not a mistake, but a crime for which all negligent parties must bear responsibility," he said. He gave Iraqi authorities 24 hours to present the results of an investigation.

The United Nations envoy to Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, expressed "shock and pain" over the incident in a statement and called for stronger protection measures in hospitals.