BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi doctors, medics and rescue workers have described the first moments of a catastrophic fire that broke out in an intensive care unit for coronavirus patients at a Baghdad hospital. They recounted the horrors of that night last weekend and warned of systemic mismanagement, describing Iraqi hospitals as ticking bombs because of lax safety rules. The fire, which erupted on Saturday, raged for hours at the Ibn al-Khatib hospital’s coronavirus ward. It claimed 82 lives and left 110 people injured. Officials said the blaze was set off by exploding oxygen cylinders and in the aftermath, speculation has run rampant about what caused the cylinders to explode.
Iraqi medics recount horrors from Baghdad’s hospital inferno
