Pakistan Hospital Fire: Report Finds Failures in Safety Measures
Pakistan hospital fire: Report finds no fire alarms or sprinklers at neonatal unit where fire killed 14
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No fire alarms or sprinklers at Pakistan hospital ward where 14 babies died, report finds
8 hours ago
By Carrie Davies, Pakistan correspondent, Islamabad
Watch: Hivsa Walid describes grabbing newborn and fleeing from hospital as fire raged
An official inquiry into a Pakistan hospital fire that killed 14 babies last month has found the neonatal unit lacked fire alarms and sprinklers, while firefighters reported that escape routes were "locked or obstructed".
One firefighter, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC he had heard from other rescue workers that entering the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital in Islamabad was "extremely difficult".
"The doors were locked so they had to break through the windows to enter. Even after getting inside, the doors leading towards the ward were locked."
PIMS has not provided a comment on the report and its findings.
The firefighter said he arrived once the blaze had been put out.
It was "difficult for me to even describe what we saw," he said. "The medical equipment above [the babies] had melted and collapsed onto them."
The report from an investigative committee headed by a retired senior civil servant found "systemic and institutional failure" which meant what began as an electrical spark became a "catastrophe".
Door was locked at Pakistan hospital where fire killed 14 babies, witnesses say
For many inside the hospital on the morning of 26 August, the first warnings were shouts.
Abdul Ghafoor was in a nearby ward with his mother, who was a patient, when he heard someone warning that a fire had erupted.
He went upstairs to see if he could help. "The entire ward was filled with smoke, we could not see anything," he told the BBC.
CCTV from the corridor outside shows how quickly the fire spread. According to the report, the first indication that something was wrong came at 06:38 when a nurse can be seen running from the ward to get help, returning 20 seconds later with a security guard.
Another nurse, Razia Noreen, is then seen rushing into the ward, emerging seconds later with one of the babies who turned out to be the only one to survive.
Within a minute, the report says, dense smoke had obscured the camera.
Hivsa Walid, her newborn niece and sister-in-law were in the ward next door. Hours later she told the BBC that they had heard a loud commotion and then realised it was a fire when they saw smoke emerging from the unit where the babies were sleeping.
"In that moment, I couldn't understand what was going on. We just focused on getting downstairs and saving ourselves."
Funerals were held last month for some of the babies who died