Massive Blaze in ICU of Coronavirus Ward in Iraq Kills 82

The death toll from a massive fire in a Baghdad hospital for coronavirus patients rose to 82 Sunday, as anxious relatives searched for those missing and the government suspended key health officials for alleged negligence.

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Mourners pray near the coffins of coronavirus patients who were killed in a hospital fire, during their funeral at the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, Iraq, Sunday, April 25, 2021. Iraq’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that over 80 people died and over 100 were injured in a catastrophic fire that broke out in the intensive care unit of a Baghdad hospital tending to severe coronavirus patients in the early morning Sunday. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)
Image via AP Photo/Anmar Khalil

This article was republished here with permission from The Associated Press, however it is no longer available to read on Snopes.com.

BAGHDAD (AP) — The death toll from a massive fire in a Baghdad hospital for coronavirus patients rose to 82 Sunday, as anxious relatives searched for those missing and the government suspended key health officials for alleged negligence. The blaze, described by one witness as “volcanoes of fire,” swept through the intensive care unit of the Ibn al-Khatib hospital which tends exclusively to coronavirus patients with severe symptoms. Officials said the blaze, which also injured…

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