Babies as Young as 3 Hours Old Die in Hospital Fire

A pre-dawn fire tore through a hospital nursery at Islamabad's largest public hospital on Wednesday, killing 14 newborns and triggering anguished questions about safety protocols. Officials say the blaze was caused by an explosion in an air-conditioning unit on the third floor of the maternal and child health unit at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences. Only one of the 15 babies inside was rescued; a rep for the hospital says a doctor saved the child. TV footage showed rescue workers using ladders to access the third-floor nursery through broken windows, reports the AP.

Parents and witnesses described a chaotic scene and a slow response. The building that housed the ward "had no fire security, no proper exits. All doors were closed, only one door was (open) for us to visit our children," a father who lost his newborn in the blaze told Reuters. The BBC reports the victims ranged in age from three hours to three days old. One mother told Reuters, "It is not God's will ... I don't accept it." An investigation is under way, and Federal Secretary of Health Aslam Ghauri has been removed from his post.