Fire at Baghdad Hospital Packed with Covid Patients Kills at Least 82

A blast caused by an exploding oxygen cylinder swept through a hospital that lacked smoke detectors and had flammable false ceilings.

BAGHDAD — A fire sparked by an exploding oxygen cylinder killed at least 82 people, most of them Covid-19 patients and their relatives, at a Baghdad hospital late Saturday, a devastating example of the pandemic’s impact on a country riddled with corruption and a legacy of decrepit infrastructure. The hospital, a facility dedicated to Covid-19 patients in one of Baghdad’s poorer neighborhoods, had no smoke detectors, sprinkler system or fire hoses, said Maj. Gen. Khadhim Bohan, the head of Iraq’s civil defense forces. The fire spread quickly because of flammable material used in false ceilings in the intensive care ward, he added. “If there had been smoke detectors, the situation would have been totally different,” General Bohan told the state-run Iraqiya TV.