BAGHDAD (XINHUA, REUTERS) - The Iraqi Ministry of Health on Wednesday (July 14) put the death toll at 60 in a huge fire that broke out on Monday evening at a hospital in Iraq's southern province of Dhi Qar. Earlier media reports said that 92 people had died in the blaze.
"After the end of the civil defence and Forensics work in Dhi Qar province, the total number of deaths in the fire of the quarantine centre at al-Hussein Hospital reached 39, in addition to 21 unidentified bodies," the ministry said in a statement.
On Monday evening, a huge fire broke out in the coronavirus quarantine centre of the hospital in the provincial capital al-Nasiriyah.
Firefighters and civil defence teams rushed to the scene to evacuate the patients and health workers. The fire was put out only hours later.
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.
On April 24, at least 82 people were killed and 110 others injured when a fire broke out at Ibn al-Khatib Hospital, another Covid-19 hospital, in the capital Baghdad as a result of oxygen cylinder explosion.
President Barham Salih on Twitter said both fires were "the result of endemic corruption and mismanagement that disregards the lives of Iraqis".
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi held a Cabinet meeting, during which he pledged to announce the results of an investigation into the fire within a week, according to a statement issued by the prime minister's office.
Mr al-Kadhimi has meanwhile suspended and detained the director-general of the provincial health department, the director of the hospital and the provincial civil defence director, said the statement.
He also declared three days of national mourning for the victims, it added.
A Nassiriya court said it had ordered the arrest of 13 local officials in connection with the fire.
A medic at al-Hussein 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'."
The head of Iraq's semi-official Human Rights Commission said that Monday's blast showed how ineffective safety measures still were in a health system crippled by war and sanctions.
"To have such a tragic incident repeated few months later means that still no (sufficient) measures have been taken to prevent them," Mr Ali Bayati said.
Local civil defence authority head Salah Jabbar said the fact that the hospital had been built with lightweight panels separating the wards had made the fire spread faster.
At the city's morgue, anger spread among people who gathered to receive their relatives' bodies.
"No quick response to the fire, not enough firefighters. Sick people burned to death. It's a disaster," said Mr Mohammed Fadhil, waiting to receive his bother's body.
The blaze trapped many patients inside the coronavirus ward and rescue teams struggled to reach them, a health worker told Reuters on Monday.
In Najaf, a holy Shi'ite city around 250km north-west of Nassiriya city, Imad Hashim sobbed after losing his mother, sister-in-law and niece.
"What should I say after losing my family," the 46-year-old said. "No point demanding anything from a failed government. Three days and this case will be forgotten like others."
