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- Fire sweeps through Jazan hospital wards; 31 dead
- Call to leave open emergency exits in institutions
Fatima Muhammad
A FIRE ripped through Jazan General Hospital in the Kingdom’s south, on Thursday, killing at least 31 people and injuring over a hundred.
The fire swept the intensive care unit and the maternity ward before dawn, the Civil Defense agency said.
Details of the fire and its victims were scant, but photographs published on Twitter by the agency showed smoke and an intense blaze which appeared to have severely damaged the interior of the white-walled hospital.
In an update later, the Civil Defense said the fire had been extinguished and an investigation was under way into the cause.
Twenty-one teams of emergency workers assisted in putting out the blaze. The teams were able to evacuate the children and patients from the intensive care unit, the Health Ministry said on its Twitter account.
Al-Ekhbariya television interviewed a witness who said the cause of the fire appeared to be electrical, and that it swept through the hospital in just 3 minutes.
“We could hear the women screaming,” said the man, who was not named. The fire sparked a wave of criticism among social media users who complained that Jazan province, especially its hospitals, suffers from inadequate infrastructure.
A video showed a man attempting to open a closed emergency exit in the hospital. It led to various calls demanding that the Civil Defense should come up with firm procedures to ensure that all exit points at different government and private institutions should always remain open to facilitate rescue efforts in case of emergencies.
A trending hashtag urged the people to inform the authorities about any violating establishment. Nawaf Bin Qwaid called on Twitter demanding that the Civil Defense must organize inspection tours of all establishments and impose severe fines on erring institutions.
Essam Al-Zamel demanded starting a campaign to report on closed emergency doors. It should have a video showing a closed door and its location and the responsible authority, he said.
The 31 dead included one child, the television quoted the director of Civil Defense in Jazan, Maj. Gen. Saad Al-Ghamdi, as saying. All those injured were transferred to other hospitals in the area.
Jazan is the focus of a $20 billion plan to develop the local economy by building an industrial complex that produces and uses oil products for manufacturing.
Jazan has also been caught up in Saudi Arabia’s military engagement against Houthi rebels in Yemen this year. On Tuesday, Saudi authorities said they had shot down a ballistic missile fired from Yemen that was on a trajectory toward Jazan.
— With input from Agencies
