Iran’s President Condoles with Iraq over Hospital Fire Tragedy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani offered his condolences to Iraq on a deadly fire at a hospital in Nasiriya that has killed over 90 people.
In a Wednesday message to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Rouhani expressed condolences to the Iraqi government and nation on the fatalities in the fire that broke out at the Al-Hussein hospital in the southern city of Nasiriya late on Monday.
Wishing a speedy recovery for those injured in the fire, the president said the tragic incident saddened the Iranian government and people.
The death toll from the fire that tore through the coronavirus ward of the hospital in Nasiriya has risen to 92, as grieving relatives slam the government over the second such disaster within three months.
Officials said more than 100 people have been injured in the blaze.
An investigation showed the fire began when sparks from faulty wiring spread to an oxygen tank that then exploded.
Al-Kadhimi convened an emergency meeting and ordered the suspension and arrest of the health director in Dhi Qar province, the hospital director and the city’s civil defense chief. The government also launched a time-bound investigation.
The blaze at the Nasiriya hospital is the second such tragedy this year.
In April, a fire at a Baghdad COVID-19 hospital sparked by the explosion of badly stored oxygen cylinders killed 82 people and injured 110 others.
