Horror as 13 babies burn to death in Iraqi hospital fire ‘because panicked staff couldn’t find the key to a locked ward’
Desperate parents described finding only 'charred pieces of flesh' after the blaze ripped through the Baghdad maternity ward
PARENTS of babies burned alive in a Baghdad hospital fire have described their horror at failing to save the newborns - because they were trapped in a locked ward.
When the fire broke out at the maternity wing of Yarmouk Hospital, panicking staff were unable to find the keys to the nursery.
Compounding this, none of the fire extinguishers worked and it took an hour and a half for firefighters to arrive, it was claimed.
The devastating inferno tore through the facility overnight Tuesday, killing 13 babies and forcing the hospitalisation of another eight.
Photographs taken the following day showed charred baby incubators lying discarded in the street.
Surrounding them were enraged family members of those killed, who described finding only "charred pieces of flesh" to suggest their newborns had died.
"We asked the help of one of the employees, but she said, 'I cannot help you with anything, because it’s a fire'."
Many blamed government corruption and ineptitude for the disaster, which authorities say was started by an electrical fault.
Soon after news of the death emerged, Iraq's Health Minister, Adila Hamoud, announced her resignation.
The grief of the bereaved parents and relatives was compounded by the fact that the babies' young age and the effects of the fire made it very difficult to identify the bodies.
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.
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