Inferno: 25 dead in Saudi hospital fire
The blaze broke out in the intensive care unit and the maternity department
Members of Saudi Civil Defence inspect the damage at Jazan General Hospital following a pre-dawn fire in the port city of Jazan, Saudi Arabia December 24, 2015. PHOTO: REUTERS
RIYADH:
A fire ripped through a hospital in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, killing at least 25 people and injuring 123, the authorities said.
The blaze broke out in the intensive care unit and the maternity department of the Jazan General Hospital in the kingdom’s south, the civil defence agency said on Twitter.
It said in an update later that the fire had been extinguished and an investigation was under way into the cause.
Twenty-one teams of emergency workers had assisted in putting out the blaze in Jazan, the capital of Jizan province, it added.
The teams were able to evacuate the children and patients from the intensive care unit without problem, the health ministry said on its Twitter account, but most casualties were on the hospital’s upper floors.
“Unfortunately, the thick smoke from the fire spread into the upper floors of the hospital, leaving 25 dead and 123 injured,” Health Minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement carried by national news agency SPA.
Alriyadh daily quoted a civil defence spokesman as saying the agency was alerted of the fire at 2:00 am. In August, 10 people were killed and 259 wounded in a fire at a residential complex rented by oil giant Saudi Aramco in the kingdom’s Eastern Province.
That fire was ignited by an electric short circuit in the underground car park, according to the authorities.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2015.
A fire ripped through a hospital in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, killing at least 25 people and injuring 123, the authorities said.
The blaze broke out in the intensive care unit and the maternity department of the Jazan General Hospital in the kingdom’s south, the civil defence agency said on Twitter.
It said in an update later that the fire had been extinguished and an investigation was under way into the cause.
Twenty-one teams of emergency workers had assisted in putting out the blaze in Jazan, the capital of Jizan province, it added.
The teams were able to evacuate the children and patients from the intensive care unit without problem, the health ministry said on its Twitter account, but most casualties were on the hospital’s upper floors.
“Unfortunately, the thick smoke from the fire spread into the upper floors of the hospital, leaving 25 dead and 123 injured,” Health Minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement carried by national news agency SPA.
Alriyadh daily quoted a civil defence spokesman as saying the agency was alerted of the fire at 2:00 am. In August, 10 people were killed and 259 wounded in a fire at a residential complex rented by oil giant Saudi Aramco in the kingdom’s Eastern Province.
That fire was ignited by an electric short circuit in the underground car park, according to the authorities.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2015.