Workers search for bodies after a catastrophic blaze destroyed a COVID-19 ward at a hospital in Nassiriya,Iraq.Credit:AP
An investigation showed the fire began when sparks from faulty wiring spread to an oxygen tank that then exploded,police and civil defence authorities said.
It was Iraq’s second such tragedy in three months,and the country’s President on Tuesday blamed corruption for both. A statement from the Prime Minister’s office called for national mourning.
Rescue teams were using a heavy crane to remove the charred and melted remains of the part of the city’s al-Hussain hospital where COVID-19 patients were being treated,as relatives gathered nearby.
A medic at the hospital,who declined to give his name and whose shift ended a few hours before the fire broke out,said the absence of basic safety measures meant it was an accident in the making.
“The hospital lacks a fire sprinkler system or even a simple fire alarm,” he told Reuters.
“We complained many times over the past three months that a tragedy could happen any moment from a cigarette stub but every time we get the same answer from health officials:‘we don’t have enough money’.”
While some bodies were collected for burial,with mourners weeping and praying over the coffins,the remains of more than 20 badly charred corpses required DNA tests to identify them.