Fire Kills 14 Newborns At Pakistan Hospital

At least 14 newborn babies have died following a fire at a major government hospital in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

The fire broke out on Wednesday morning on the third floor of the mother and child unit of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), one of the city’s main state-run hospitals.

Reports said the fire was triggered by an air-conditioning unit. Of the 15 babies in the affected ward at the time, 14 died.

Pakistan’s Minister of State for Interior, Talal Chaudhry, said seven other babies, 10 women and two men were rescued from other parts of the hospital.

Pakistan’s Health Minister, Mustafa Kamal, told Geo News that the babies in the affected ward were either in incubators or connected to oxygen equipment. Although oxygen does not burn on its own, it can cause a fire to spread faster and burn more intensely.

The tragedy has prompted an immediate response from the country’s authorities, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif suspending the Federal Secretary of Health, Aslam Ghauri, from his position.

Sharif, who chaired a high-level meeting on the incident, also expressed what the information ministry described as “deep anger” towards some officials.

The identification of some of the dead babies has also proved difficult for families. Chaudhry told the BBC that while some parents were able to identify their children through hospital wristbands, others relied on the babies’ ages.

Some of the victims were just three hours old, he said.

Eyewitnesses described chaotic scenes as thick smoke spread through the hospital, with shattered glass scattered around the building. Some relatives also alleged that emergency responders were slow to arrive.

Khurram Mehmood, whose three-day-old daughter died in the fire, told AFP that rescuers took hours to reach the hospital.

“We were sitting on the road waiting for help,” he said.

Another witness, Abdul Ghafoor, said the fire spread rapidly.

He said he entered the hospital in an attempt to help rescue patients but was unable to reach the maternity ward because of the thick smoke.

“There was thick black smoke inside and patients were trapped,” he told AFP, adding that rescue teams arrived nearly two hours later.

Another witness, Hivsa Walid, told the BBC that she was at the hospital with her sister-in-law, who had given birth a few days earlier, when the fire broke out.

She said they were in a nursery opposite the room where the fire started when they heard shouting. Initially believing someone had died, they soon noticed smoke filling the area.

Walid said they quickly picked up the newborn baby, who is yet to be named, and ran from the building.

Emergency responders rescued at least 19 other people, including 10 women, seven children and two men.

Prime Minister Sharif expressed his “deep sorrow and heartfelt regret” over the deaths and directed authorities to immediately investigate the incident.

“Such a situation with children is irreparable,” a statement from his office said.

Meanwhile, Islamabad’s District Magistrate has set up a fact-finding committee to investigate the cause of the fire and directed it to submit its report within 24 hours.

Families of the victims gathered outside the hospital and mortuary in scenes of grief and shock. Police officers were deployed around the entrance, while shattered glass and discarded medical masks littered the surrounding area.

PIMS is one of the largest hospitals in Islamabad, with its maternal and child health unit having 156 beds.

Pakistan has witnessed several deadly fires in recent years, with poor safety standards, weak building regulations and inadequate enforcement often cited as major contributing factors.