A devastating fire broke out at a maternity ward in Islamabad on Wednesday, killing 14 infants, according to Pakistani authorities. Officials said the blaze was caused by a faulty air-conditioning unit.
The fire started around dawn on the third floor of the Mother and Child Health (MCH) Ward at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), one of the capital’s major public hospitals, the Islamabad district office said in a statement.
The authorities confirmed that all 14 victims were infants. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the deaths and called for a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Witnesses described chaotic and distressing scenes, with thick smoke filling the ward, windows being shattered and families desperately trying to rescue patients. Some also alleged that emergency services were slow to arrive and that security guards initially prevented people from leaving the ward.
Khurram Mehmood, 40, told AFP that his three-day-old daughter died in the fire and claimed rescuers took hours to arrive.
“My wife was in the ward. They took everyone out. We were sitting on the road waiting for help,” he said.
Jaweria, a woman who said she lost her infant, alleged that the door to the neonatal intensive care unit was locked during the fire.
“I do not believe this. Give me my child back… Why did the doctors leave the children there?”
Witness Abdul Ghafoor said the fire spread rapidly and that some babies were only a day old.
“The fire spread very quickly. There were babies as young as one-day old,” he said, adding that he entered the hospital in an attempt to rescue patients but could not reach the maternity ward.
“There was thick black smoke inside and patients were trapped… Rescue teams arrived after almost two hours (since the fire started).”
However, Islamabad chief commissioner Sohail Ashraf said the emergency call was placed shortly before 7:00 am (0200 GMT), and that rescue and police teams arrived “immediately” before bringing the fire under control.
Another witness, who did not give her name, alleged that hospital security personnel prevented people from leaving the ward.
“People had to break the door down and rescue teams had to break the windows to control the fire,” she said.
AFP reporters at the scene witnessed heartbreaking scenes as families gathered outside the hospital while a nurse called out the names of babies who had died.
Other patients emerged from the building with soot covering their faces. One man was seen carrying a newborn in his arms, while a mother with black residue on her hands stood outside crying as she held her 10-day-old baby.
“People were screaming. There was black smoke. We ran for our lives. Thank god my baby is safe,” Shagufta Parveen, the mother, told AFP.
Families continued to mourn outside the hospital as security personnel remained stationed around the facility. AFP also reported seeing a man clearing shattered glass from two broken windows.
Prime Minister Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi expressed “deep grief and sorrow over the deaths of 14 infants” in separate statements.
“The circumstances that led to the incident should be thoroughly reviewed, those responsible should be identified and the strictest possible action should be taken,” the prime minister said.
PIMS spokeswoman Aneeza Jalil told AFP that an electrical fault caused the fire, saying that “fire sparked from the AC”.
The incident has renewed concerns about fire safety in Pakistan, where major building fires have frequently been linked to weak safety regulations, inadequate building standards and poor enforcement.
In January, more than 65 people were reportedly killed in a shopping centre fire in Karachi. Another shopping mall fire in the city claimed at least 11 lives in 2023, while a factory fire in 2021 killed at least 16 workers.
One of Pakistan’s deadliest recent industrial fires occurred in 2012, when at least 250 workers died in a garment factory fire in Karachi.
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