MOI reveals new details about Ibn Al-Khatib's fire

Baghdad - INA

The Ministry of Interior confirmed, today, Sunday, that the Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital fire accident was not an act of action, while it revealed new details about its occurrence, the position of the civil defense, and the date of its arrival at the site of the fire.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Major General Khaled Al-Mihna, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that "despite the fact that the investigation is in its beginnings and the expert in the field of determining fires has not submitted his report to the forensic evidence yet, it is unlikely that the accident was an act of action," indicating that "Most of the similar accidents were due to negligence or an electrical short, if the opposite is not proven through the reports."

He added, "Civil Defense reports indicate that the fire occurred very quickly and the fire spread to most floors within 3 minutes," pointing out that "the first firefighting team from the civil defense teams arrived within 3 and a half minutes to the location of the fire." 

He pointed out that "the diagnosis provided by the civil defense teams through the site and its survey showed that there was a failure to take the necessary precautions within the instructions of the civil defense, and the directorate confirmed in its diagnosis also the absence of a self-extinguishing system or an early warning system, as well as the absence of a civil defense guard and others." 

Among the things in addition to the use of highly flammable materials from the hospital infrastructure, such as secondary ceilings, all of this helped to accelerate the spread of fire. " 

He added that "the current toll reached 82 martyrs and 110 injured, most of them in resuscitation and were related to central resuscitation," explaining that "when the oxygen system stopped, they had complications as a result of fire and smoke, which led to an increase in the number of victims."