BAGHDAD, Jul 13 (NNN-NINA) – At least 41 people were killed and many others wounded, in a huge fire that broke out in a hospital treating COVID-19 patients, in Iraq’s southern province of Dhi Qar.
The evening massive fire hit the quarantine centre for COVID-19 patients in al-Hussein Hospital, in the provincial capital city of al-Nasiriyah, some 375 km south of Baghdad.
Firefighters and civil defence teams were striving to evacuate the patients and health workers, while trying to put out the fire of some 20 sandwich panel caravans, in the makeshift centre at the site of the al-Hussein Hospital, it added.
Later on, spokesman for the Health Department of Dhi Qar Province, Ammar al-Zamily, said that, the firefighters managed to put out the fire.
Dhi Qar’s health department declared a state of emergency after the fire, al-Zamily said.
Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, held an emergency meeting with some cabinet ministers and security commanders, to discuss the hospital fire and its consequences, al-Kadhimi’s media office said in a statement.
Iraqi Parliament Speaker, Mohammed al-Halbousi, tweeted that the parliament session today will discuss the incident.– NNN-NINA
