An air conditioning unit caught fire in a maternity ward, trapping infants hooked up to oxygen. Now, devastated families are wandering the shattered glass outside, trying to figure out what happened to their days-old children.
You bring a new life into the world, expecting the hospital to be the safest place for them. But when a fire breaks out in the maternity ward, the very machines keeping your baby alive can turn the room into an inferno.
That is the nightmare unfolding at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad. Early Wednesday morning, an air conditioning unit caught fire on the third floor of the mother and child unit.
The ward had 15 newborns. They were tiny, fragile, and either resting in incubators or hooked up to oxygen equipment. Health Minister Mustafa Kamal noted that while oxygen itself isn’t flammable, it acts like fuel for a fire, making materials burn hotter and much faster.
Only one baby was pulled out alive. The other 14 perished in the flames.
The scene outside the state-run hospital is heartbreaking. Glass from shattered windows is mixed with medical masks on the pavement. Families are gathered by the entrance, crying and searching for answers. One man told the reporters his three-day-old baby had died in the blaze.
Hivsa Walid was inside the hospital with her sister-in-law, who had just given birth. They were in the nursery right across from the room where the fire started.
“We heard a shout and initially thought someone had died, but then saw the smoke,” she said. They grabbed the newborn, who is so young she doesn’t even have a name yet, and ran for their lives.
Emergency responders managed to rescue 19 other people from the building, including 10 women and seven children. But for the parents of the 14 babies who didn’t make it, the nightmare is far from over. The infants’ bodies were so badly burnt that they cannot be identified by sight. Parents will have to wait for DNA tests to get their children back for a proper burial.
SEE ALSO: Laptop Catches Fire on US Flight, Several Passengers Burned
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered an immediate investigation, calling the loss “irreparable.”
“Such a situation with children is irreparable,” his office said in a statement. A fact-finding committee formed by the District Magistrate has just 24 hours to figure out how this happened.
Tragically, this is not an isolated incident in Pakistan. The country has a grim history of deadly fires caused by poor safety laws, lax enforcement, and substandard building codes. Just this past January, a fire at the Gul Plaza shopping center in Karachi killed 67 people.
The impending investigation will tell the parents exactly how the AC unit caught fire. But no government report will bring back the 14 babies who never got the chance to go home.
Promise Idoko is a tech analyst and writer at Moderncrux, specializing in artificial intelligence, fintech, and emerging technologies. Based in Nigeria, he is dedicated to delivering insightful and accessible coverage of complex technological developments. His work explores the impact of innovation on businesses, industries, and societies, with a particular focus on Africa’s evolving technology landscape and its connection to global trends.
