Eleven newborn babies are burned alive in their incubators after fire rips through maternity hospital in Baghdad
Iraqi authorities say the deadly blaze was likely sparked by an electrical fault
A FIRE at a maternity ward killed 11 newborn babies when it ripped through a hospital in Baghdad overnight.
At least seven other children - including three suffering from smoke inhalation - and 29 women were also rescued from the Yarmouk Hospital and transferred to another site.
The fire broke out at around midnight local time in one of the maternity wards and also severely damaged the building, the country's Health Ministry said.
At the scene this morning, forensic teams in masks and protective gloves were seen searching through the rubble and charred pieces of furniture.
A yellow tape stretched across the ward entrance, preventing reporters from getting closer.
Some of the crying relatives outside claimed their babies were still missing and demanded an answer from authorities.
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One father, 30-year-old Hussein Omar, a construction worker, said he lost twins in the blaze, a baby boy and a girl born last week. The hospital told him to go look for them at another Baghdad hospital where some of the patients were moved to during the fire.
He said he looked and couldn't find them anywhere so he came back to Yarmouk. The hospital staff then told him to go look at the morgue.
"I only found charred pieces of flesh," Omar said, crying. "I want my baby boy and girl back. The government must give them back to me."
Nearby, Shaima Hassan stood dazed and trembling in shock after losing her two-day-old son. The 36-year old had spent more than a year visiting hospitals in and outside Iraq trying to conceive.
"I waited for ages to have this baby and when I finally had him, it took only a second to lose him," she said, holding a bunch of blackened documents with her hands, covered with burns.
She recounted how the chaos began at midnight at the ward, located on the ground floor.
"People started screaming, 'Fire, fire' and running," said Hassan. She and her husband, who was visiting them, ran toward the room for the newborns but were stopped by a wall of thick smoke.
"Then someone broke a window and threw me out," she added.
Eshrak Ahmed Jaasar, 41, said she is unable to find her four-day-old nephew.
"I came early this morning to see my nephew and his mother, but they told me about the fire," Jasaar said. "My nephew is still missing and his mother was moved to another hospital ward.";
She said she was still in shock and felt very bitter.
"We pay the hospital employees thousands of Iraqi dinars to allow us in to get our loved ones basic food and milk, which they cannot provide," Jasaar said. "It's a corrupt government that doesn't care about its citizens and lets this happen."
Umm Ahmed came to Yarmuk on Tuesday when a close relative of hers gave birth. The baby died in the inferno and the mother suffered burns, she said.
"I am looking for our child, they told me 'go find him in the fridge'," said the middle-aged woman.
"I found him in a small cardboard box but I'm not even sure if it's our child or a piece of sponge. It looks like charcoal," said the woman, wearing a black over-garment.
"I just want our child, somebody give him to me," she cried.
Baghdad authorities quickly sealed off the hospital and barred media from the site.
Electrical fires are common in the Iraqi capital and elsewhere across the country because of shoddy maintenance and poor wiring. A lack of fire escapes also contributes to the danger whenever a fire breaks out.
There is also widespread failure by construction companies and those providing building material to follow accepted standards.
Pictures posted on social media showed the hospital in a state of neglect, with cockroaches crawling out from between broken tiles, dustbins overflowing with rubbish, dirty toilets and patients lying on stretchers in the courtyard.
The relative of a patient who died recently in the hospital from meningitis said he saw cockroach crawling along the tube of an oxygen mask.
He said: "It was so dirty we had to bring our own bed sheets."
Yarmouk Hospital, located in the capital's southwest, is the second largest in the city and is regularly used to treat those injured by violence.
The hospital itself has also been the target of several bombings.
A suicide bomber detonated his vest outside the hospital in 2005, and in 2006 a car bomb exploded in front of the building.
Last year a car bomb also exploded in its car park, killing three people.
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