By Ingrid "Shortwave" Frost
A fire broke out before dawn Wednesday in the newborn nursery of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, a major government hospital in Islamabad, killing at least 14 infants, hospital officials and the government said. Al Jazeera, citing Geo News, put the toll as high as 15. Only one child was pulled out alive.
Details on the cause were not immediately available. The government has ordered an immediate inquiry, according to NPR News, which reported the blaze erupted early Wednesday in the nursery ward.
The discrepancy in the death toll — 14 versus 15, depending on the outlet — reflects the confusion common in the first hours after a mass-casualty disaster, before hospitals and officials finish accounting for every patient. Readers should expect the final number to be confirmed, and possibly revised, as the inquiry proceeds.
No further details on the newborns' identities, the ward's staffing at the time of the fire, or the building's fire-safety equipment have been reported by the sources available. Those are the questions the ordered inquiry will need to answer, and this desk will follow up as Pakistani authorities release findings.
A hospital nursery is supposed to be the safest room in the building. For 14 families in Islamabad this week, it was the opposite. That gap — between what a maternity ward promises and what happened Wednesday — is the story the inquiry now has to explain.
FILED FROM SOMEWHERE WITH BAD COFFEE –
— Compiled from reporting by NPR News and Al Jazeera, citing Geo News.
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