Baghdad Hospital Fire Kills at Least 82, Many of Them Covid Patients
The New York Times
A blast caused by an exploding oxygen cylinder swept through a hospital that lacked smoke detectors and spread partly because of flammable false ceilings.
BAGHDAD — A fire sparked by an exploding oxygen cylinder killed at least 82 people, many of them Covid-19 patients, at a Baghdad hospital late Saturday, the latest example of the pandemic’s devastating impact on a country riddled with corruption, mismanagement and a legacy of decrepit infrastructure. The hospital, a facility dedicated to Covid-19 patients in one of Baghdad’s poorer neighborhoods, had no smoke detectors, sprinkler system or fire hoses, said Maj. Gen. Khadhim Bohan, the head of Iraq’s civil defense forces. The fire spread quickly because of flammable material used in false ceilings in the intensive care ward, he said. “If there had been smoke detectors, the situation would have been totally different,” General Bohan told the state-run Iraqiya TV.
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