Deadly fire rips through Iraq COVID ward: Health official

At least 36 people have been killed in a fire at a COVID isolation ward at an Iraqi hospital, the second such deadly inferno in a COVID-19 unit in three months, a health official has said.

The fire broke out at the Al-Hussein hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya late Monday and was still continuing, according to an AFP correspondent.

Haydar al-Zamili, a spokesman for the local health authorities, told AFP that the “fire … ripped through the COVID isolation ward,” and put the death toll at 36.

Five were injured, “including two in critical condition,” he added.

“The victims died of burns and the search is continuing,” Zamili said, noting that there were fears victims could still be trapped inside the building. The ward itself has space for 60 patients.

Sixteen people have been rescued so far, a medical source said late Monday.

Videos shared online showed thick clouds of smoke billowing from the Al-Hussein hospital.

Earlier on Monday, a minor fire broke out at the health ministry’s headquarters in Baghdad, but it was quickly contained with no fatalities recorded.

The blaze at the hospital is the second such tragedy this year.

In April, a fire at a Baghdad COVID-19 hospital killed 82 and injured 110, sparked by the explosion of badly stored oxygen cylinders.

Many of the victims were on respirators being treated for COVID-19 and were burned or suffocated in the resulting inferno that spread rapidly through the hospital, where dozens of relatives were visiting patients in the intensive care unit.

The then-health minister, Hassan al-Tamimi, resigned after the April fire.

Iraq – where the oil-reliant economy is still recovering from decades of war and rebellion and many people live in poverty – has recorded more than 1.4 million coronavirus cases and more than 17,000 deaths.