Death toll in Iraq hospital fire reaches 92
At least 92 people have been killed and dozens injured in a massive fire that engulfed a hospital in Iraq’s southern province of Dhikar. Last evening, a fire broke out at the isolation center of the Al-Hussein Hospital in the provincial capital, al-Nasiriyya. Soon it spread to the nearby 20 sandwich panel caravans.
Firefighters and civil defense teams rushed to the scene to evacuate patients and health workers and brought the fire under control hours later.
On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi held a cabinet meeting, during which he promised to announce the results of the fire investigation within a week, according to a statement released by the prime minister’s media office.
Meanwhile, al-Kadhimi decided to suspend and detain the director general of the provincial health department, the hospital director and the provincial civil protection director and ordered an investigation into the fatal incident, the statement said.
He also announced three days of national mourning for the victims.
