At least 11 prematurely born babies were killed in a fire that broke out in the early hours of Wednesday on a maternity ward in a Baghdad hospital and was probably caused by an electrical fault, the health ministry said.
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The fire broke out at the Iraq’s biggest hospital in Baghdad on Wednesday.
The newborns are believed to have died of suffocation, said Ahmed al-Rdainy, a spokesman for the Iraqi Health Ministry.
Families of newborn babies who died in the fire gather outside Yarmouk hospital.
He said he went but couldn’t find them, so he returned to Yarmouk.
Hassan Omar said he was upset that the hospital would not give him information about his twins other than that he may have to have DNA checks to check if they were among the dead.
36-year-old mom Shaima Hassan trembled in shock after learning she had lost her two-day-old son.
Sadly, electrical fires are common throughout Baghdad and across the country due to poor wiring and bad maintenance. She is 36 and had spent the previous year trying to conceive. She and her husband, who was visiting them, ran toward the room for the newborns but were stopped by a wall of thick smoke. “People started screaming, “Fire, fire” and running”, she recalled.
Hospital officials had told him to look for them at the other hospitals in Baghdad, he told AP.
On the other hand, Eshrak Ahmed Jaasar, told the news agency that her 4-day-old nephew was missing after his mother was moved to another hospital ward.
“We pay the hospital employees thousands of Iraqi dinars to allow us in to get our loved ones basic food and milk, which they can not provide”, she added.
“I found him in a small cardboard box but I’m not even sure if it’s our child or a piece of sponge”. “It’s a corrupt government that doesn’t care about its citizens and lets this happen”.
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A lack of fire escapes in buildings also reportedly contributes to the dangers of a blaze. ABC News reported that construction companies fail to follow accepted standards.
