Death toll rises to 92 in a fire in the Corona virus ward in Iraq

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NASIRIA, Iraq (Associated Press) – The death toll from a fire that engulfed a coronavirus ward in a hospital rose to 92 on Tuesday, the official Iraqi News Agency reported, as exhausted relatives buried their loved ones and criticized the government in the second such incident in the country. Disaster in less than three months.

Health officials said dozens of others were injured in the fire that broke out on Monday at Al Hussein Teaching Hospital in Nassiriya.

The tragedy highlighted what many described as widespread neglect and mismanagement in Iraqi hospitals after decades of war and sanctions.

Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi held an emergency meeting and ordered the arrest and detention of the Director of Health in Dhi Qar Governorate, the Director of the Hospital, and the Director of Civil Defense in the city. The government also launched an investigation.

The Prime Minister described the disaster as “a deep wound in the consciousness of all Iraqis.”

Two Iraqi health officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, questioned the reported death toll, saying 88 had been killed.

At one point, authorities said the fire was caused by a short circuit. Another official said the fire broke out when an oxygen cylinder exploded. The officials were not authorized to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In April, at least 82 people – many of them coronavirus patients or their relatives – died in a Baghdad hospital fire that erupted when an oxygen tank exploded. The Iraqi Minister of Health resigned due to the disaster.

In the holy city of Najaf, the dead of Nasiriyah were buried. Mourning families stood on top of the coffins in a mosque for a final prayer.

Their tears were filled with anger, as some said that the disaster could have been averted. They blamed both the provincial government and the central government in Baghdad.

Ahmed Rassan, who witnessed the fire, said it started with smoke. But everyone ran away – the workers and even the police. A few minutes later, an explosion occurred. He said firefighters arrived an hour later.

The entire state system has collapsed, and who paid the price? People are inside here. These people paid the price,” Haider Al Askari said at the scene.

Overnight, firefighters and rescue workers – many carrying flashlights and using blankets to put out small fires – searched the ward. As dawn broke, bodies covered in sheets were seen lying on the ground outside the hospital. Grieving relatives searched for traces of loved ones amid charred blankets and belongings.

Ali Khaled, 20, a volunteer who rushed to the scene said he found the bodies of two young girls locked in their arms.

He said, “How terrified they were, they died embracing each other.”

The suite, which opened three months ago, had 70 beds in three large halls. Major General Khaled Bohan, head of the Iraqi Civil Defense, said the building was constructed from cheap and flammable materials.

Ali Karrar, a cleaner at the hospital, said the ward had only 4 fire extinguishers and no fire alarm system. He said the fire engines quickly ran out of water.

Doctors have long complained about lax safety in Iraqi hospitals, especially around oxygen cylinders, and have described the institutions as time bombs.

Mac Skelton, a medical sociologist who focuses on Iraq, said the chaos and neglect in Iraq’s public hospitals since the 2003 US-led invasion has led to “toxic” mistrust between patients and doctors.

Doctors on COVID-19 wards often said they avoid confronting families of patients who mishandle oxygen tanks, fearing their backlash. “But families say they have legitimate concerns about leaving the lives of their loved ones vulnerable to medical workers who view them as under-resourced, overburdened, and disinterested.”

Iraq is in the midst of another dangerous wave of the spread of COVID-19. New cases per day peaked last week at 9,000. Iraq’s war-crippled health system has struggled to contain the virus. The country has recorded more than 17,000 deaths and 1.4 million confirmed cases.

Widespread fear and mistrust in the public health sector prevented many from seeking hospital care.

Ali Abbas Salman, who rushed to evacuate his COVID-19 infected father from the building after the fire broke out, swore he would not take the older man back to the hospital.

“He wants me to take him home. He said, ‘It’s better to die from the Corona virus than to be burned alive,'” Salman said.

The disaster is likely to stoke public discontent with Iraq’s political establishment ahead of the October elections, said Marcin al-Shammari, an Iraq specialist at the Brookings Institution. Nasiriyah was at the heart of previous revolutions in Iraq.

“Looking at this public atmosphere being built around the city, you can imagine that something as tragic as this event, where people who were already vulnerable were killed in a needless accident, would create more public outrage,” she said.

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Writer Kassem Abdel-Zahra contributed to the Associated Press.

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