Pakistan hospital fire kills 14 children in maternity ward

Fourteen children died after a fire broke out in a maternity ward at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital in Islamabad on Wednesday morning.

The blaze started on the third floor of the Mother and Child Health Ward at the public hospital, according to a statement from the Islamabad district office. The office confirmed the fatalities but did not provide the ages of the children. The cause of the fire remains undetermined.

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A total of 14 children died in the incident.

Sohail Ashraf, the Islamabad chief commissioner, reported on X that emergency services, specialists, and police responded immediately to control the fire. The emergency call was received shortly before 7 a.m. local time.

Fires in large buildings are a recurring issue in Pakistan, often attributed to inadequate safety regulations, building codes, and lax enforcement. The article cites several past incidents, including a fire in a Karachi shopping center that killed over 65 people in January, another in a Karachi mall in 2023 that claimed at least 11 lives, and a 2021 factory fire in the same city that killed at least 16 workers. A particularly deadly 2012 garment factory fire in Karachi resulted in at least 250 deaths, with the building lacking a fire escape.

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immediately reached at site and controlled the fire