Fire at Pakistan Hospital Kills 14 Newborns

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A fire broke out early Wednesday in the neonatal intensive care unit (nursery) at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the largest public hospital in the capital Islamabad, killing 14 newborns. At the time of the fire, there were 15 infants in the room; only one survived.

According to hospital management, the initial cause has been identified as an electrical short circuit in the room's air conditioning unit. The incident occurred around 6:30 a.m., when many patients' relatives were present outside the maternity ward.

Arif Rana, a 46-year-old man whose sister had given birth at the hospital the previous day, told Al Jazeera that he was sleeping on the grass outside the maternity ward when he received a call alerting him to the fire. He and his 20-year-old son ran inside barefoot, witnessing thick smoke rising. "It was very hot, I heard many panicked screams, but couldn't see anything because it was pitch black. The smoke made it hard for me to breathe," Rana recalled.

Rana managed to escort one family member to safety. However, in the adjacent ward, where the neonatal intensive care unit was located, 14 infants did not survive.

Several witnesses with relatives being treated in the maternity ward said the room where the fire occurred had only one main entrance, while emergency exits were locked from the inside. Some suggested that hospital staff routinely locked the doors to prevent newborn abductions, a pervasive issue in Pakistan.

Accounts of when rescue teams reached the scene vary. Islamabad district authorities reported that the first emergency call was logged at 6:45 a.m., with fire trucks and ambulances arriving within 7 minutes. However, an official from the Rescue 1122 emergency service stated that his unit received the alert at 6:55 a.m. and arrived in under 10 minutes. An anonymous firefighter recounted: "When we tried to enter the building, we couldn't get in because thick smoke was billowing out. We had to break through concrete grilles and glass doors to save those inside."

On the hospital's side, PIMS Chief Executive Officer Rana Imran Sikandar stated that two doctors and four nurses were on duty in the intensive care unit at the time of the fire. However, many patients' relatives present at the scene reported that they saw no medical staff in the area that morning.

This is not the first time an air-conditioning-related incident at a Pakistani hospital has claimed the lives of newborns. In June 2024, a similar fire at the neonatal ward of Sahiwal Teaching Hospital in Punjab province killed 11 infants. Following that incident, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz ordered the arrest of the hospital's medical director and three senior doctors after an investigation revealed that fire extinguishers there had expired.

Following the PIMS fire, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered an investigation and suspended Federal Health Secretary Aslam Ghaury. Two separate inquiry committees—one established by the Islamabad district administration and one by the Prime Minister's office—have been tasked with determining the cause of the incident.

Many victims' families expressed outrage over the hospital management's negligence in ensuring patient safety, especially for newborns. Samina Waqar, the sister of a new mother who survived, remarked: "This was the ward for seriously ill newborns. If there is any place that should be given the highest priority for safety, it has to be this room, yet careless attitudes led to this tragedy."