BAGHDAD (AP) — A fire ripped through a maternity ward at a Baghdad
hospital overnight, killing 12 newborn babies, government officials said
Wednesday, a deadly blaze that was likely caused by faulty electrical
wiring.
By morning, grief-stricken fathers searched for their missing
newborns in vain while angry relatives gathered outside the Yarmouk
hospital in western Baghdad blamed the government for the tragedy. Some
of the babies who perished were prematurely born, a doctor at the
hospital said.
The hospital director, Saad Hatem Ahmed, said the blaze broke out
late on Tuesday night and that the initial investigation indicated it
was an electrical fire. Ahmed said 29 female patients and eight babies
were moved from the ward where the fire broke out and transferred to
another hospital.
Baghdad authorities initially sealed off the hospital but later allowed some media into the site.
At the maternity ward, forensic teams in masks and protective gloves
were seen searching through the rubble and charred pieces of furniture. A
yellow tape stretched across the ward entrance, preventing reporters
from getting closer.
“Some of the dead babies were preemies but not all of them,” said one
of the doctors at the Yarmouk hospital. He spoke on condition of
anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
Outside, crying relatives claimed some of the babies were still missing and demanded an answer from authorities.
One father, 30-year-old Hussein Omar, a construction worker, said he
lost twins in the blaze, a baby boy and a girl born last week. The
hospital told him to go look for them at another Baghdad hospital where
some of the patients were moved to during the fire.
He said he looked and couldn’t find them anywhere so he came back to
Yarmouk. The hospital staff then told him to go look at the morgue.
“I only found charred pieces of flesh,” Omar said, crying. “I want my
baby boy and girl back. The government must give them back to me.”
Nearby, Shaima Hassan stood dazed and trembling in shock after losing
her two-day-old son. The 36-year old had spent more than a year
visiting hospitals in and outside Iraq trying to conceive.
“I waited for ages to have this baby and when I finally had him, it
took only a second to lose him,” she said, holding a bunch of blackened
documents with her hands, covered with burns.
She recounted how the chaos began at midnight at the ward, located on the ground floor.
“People started screaming, ‘Fire, fire’ and running,” said Hassan.
She and her husband, who was visiting them, ran toward the room for the
newborns but were stopped by a wall of thick smoke.
“Then someone broke a window and threw me out,” she added.
Eshrak Ahmed Jaasar, 41, said she is unable to find her four-day-old nephew.
“I came early this morning to see my nephew and his mother, but they
told me about the fire,” Jasaar said. “My nephew is still missing and
his mother was moved to another hospital ward.”
She said she was still in shock and felt very bitter.
“We pay the hospital employees thousands of Iraqi dinars to allow us
in to get our loved ones basic food and milk, which they cannot
provide,” Jasaar said. “It’s a corrupt government that doesn’t care
about its citizens and lets this happen.”
Electrical fires are common in the Iraqi capital and elsewhere across
the country because of shoddy maintenance and poor wiring. A lack of
fire escapes also contributes to the danger whenever a fire breaks out.
There is also widespread failure by construction companies and those
providing building material to follow accepted standards.
No comments:
Post a Comment