BAGHDAD (REUTERS, AFP) - A fire sparked by an oxygen tank explosion killed at least 82 people and injured 110 at a hospital in Baghdad that had been equipped to house Covid-19 patients, an Interior Ministry spokesman said on Sunday (April 25).

"We urgently need to review safety measures at all hospitals to prevent such a painful incident from happening in future," spokesman Khalid al-Muhanna told state television, announcing the toll.

The fire erupted on Saturday at the Ibn al-Khatib Hospital in the Diyala Bridge area.

Many ambulances were rushing towards the hospital, ferrying away those hurt by the fire, a Reuters photographer nearby said.

While many surviving patients were moved to other hospitals, several families were still outside the Ibn al-Khatib hours after the blaze was extinguished, still looking for relatives.

The governor of Baghdad and another senior health ministry official were also suspended and referred to investigators.

The head of Iraqi civil defence unit said the fire broke out in the floor designated for the pulmonary intensive care unit and that 90 out of 120 people have been rescued from the hospital, according to state news agency INA.

Negligence

The fire - which, according to several sources, was caused by negligence, often linked to endemic corruption in Iraq - immediately sparked anger on social media in the country.

Baghdad Governor Mohammed Jaber called on the Health Ministry "to establish a commission of enquiry so that those who did not do their jobs may be brought to justice".

In a statement, the government's human rights commission said the incident was "a crime against patients exhausted by Covid-19 who put their lives in the hands of the Health Ministry and its institutions and instead of being treated, perished in flames".

The commission called on Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi to sack Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi and "bring him to justice".

Mr Kadhemi said: "Such an incident is evidence of negligence and therefore, I directed that an investigation be launched immediately and for the hospital's manager and the heads of security and maintenance to be detained along with all those concerned until we identify those negligent and hold them accountable."

Several victims' families were still at the hospital hours after the fire had been put out, having been unable to locate them elsewhere.

By the early hours of Sunday, while the civil defence said the fire had been put out, the Health Ministry had not issued any statement or announced how many people had been killed or wounded.

An eyewitness who was visiting his brother when the fire broke out described people jumping out of windows as the fire, caused by the explosion of an oxygen bottle, spread quickly throughout the unit equipped to house Covid-19 patients.

Patients' relatives scrambled to save their loved ones.

"In the beginning, there was an explosion... The fire spread, like fuel," said one relative of one of the patients who was there at the time of the explosion.

"The smoke reached my brother. My brother is sick, I took my brother out to the street. Then I came (back)... to the last floor, that did not burn. I found a girl suffocating, about 19 years old, she was suffocating, she was about to die."

"I took her on my shoulders and I ran down. People were jumping... Doctors fell on the cars. Everyone was jumping. And I kept going up from there, got people and come down again."

Iraq's healthcare system, already ruined by decades of sanctions, war and neglect, has been stretched during the coronavirus crisis.

The first cases of Covid-19 appeared in Iraq in February 2020.

The Health Ministry has since recorded a total of 1,025,288 cases of the disease and 15,217 deaths.

It has said it carries out around 40,000 tests daily from a population of 40 million.

Those patients who can often prefer to source oxygen tanks for treatment at home, rather than go to overcrowded and run-down hospitals.

The country launched its vaccination campaign last month, and has received nearly 650,000 doses of different vaccines - the majority by donation or through the Covax programme, which is helping lower and middle-income nations to procure vaccines.

As at Wednesday, 274,343 people had received at least one dose, the ministry said.

The health authorities have faced an uphill battle to convince Iraqis to get vaccinated, in the face of widespread scepticism over the jab and public reluctance to wear masks since the start of the pandemic.