A horrific blaze in an Islamabad maternity ward on Wednesday killed 14 babies – while their desperate parents say they waited hours for help to arrive, reports the BBC.
Hivsa Walid, who was near the ward at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital with her sister-in-law, who had given birth days earlier, said she had heard a shout and then she saw smoke.
She said they immediately fled with the baby. “We didn’t even think about our belongings. We just grabbed the baby and rushed downstairs.
“Some patients had delivered their babies just that night. I don’t even know how we managed to get out – it was all a blur.”
The fire broke out in an air-conditioning unit on the third floor of the mother and child unit at PIMS, one of the main state-run hospitals in Islamabad. Only one of the 15 babies in the ward was saved, with one traumatised mother saying the door to the maternity ward was locked.
“For two hours I cried and wailed,” she said. “Police arrived after four hours and said they had come to investigate.
“Why did the doctors leave the children locked in there?” she asked.
But Rana Sikander, the hospital’s executive director, told the BBC the door was not locked but was manned. He cited the need to protect babies from being stolen, something that has happened before at government hospitals.
Walid slammed PIMS’ safety protocols as inadequate, despite it being a major hospital. “There should have been fire extinguishers and protocols, but no one was doing anything – everyone was just running.”
The father of a baby who died told Reuters he had been visiting the ward for eight days and the building had no fire security, and no proper exits.
“All doors, except the one we went through to visit our children, were locked because they feared we would come to see our children too often.”
Several eyewitnesses have claimed duty staff were not around, that people had to break the door down and rescue teams were forced to smash the windows to control the flames.
Another witness said there was thick black smoke inside and that patients were trapped
“Rescue teams only arrived after almost two hours.”
But Islamabad’s Chief Commissioner Sohail Ashraf has said rescue teams reached the scene “immediately” after the emergency call was first made, according to AFP.
PIMS is one of the biggest hospitals in Pakistan’s capital, with 156 beds in its maternal and child health unit.
Pakistan has dealt with a number of major fires in recent years, with poor safety laws, building codes and lax enforcement often blamed for steep death tolls.
Health Secretary Aslam Ghauri, a top official in the health department, has been suspended over the tragedy.
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