Islamabad Hospital Fire Kills 14 Newborn Babies

At least 14 newborns died in a fire that broke out early on Wednesday, August 26, on the third floor of the Mother and Child Centre at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered an urgent investigation and fired the state health secretary, Aslam Gauri, while the families of the children who died stood outside the hospital through the morning and into the day, demanding answers about how the disaster happened.

According to officials, the fire started shortly before 7am local time in the newborn nursery on the gynecology ward, where 15 babies were being cared for at the time. A doctor carried one child out of the fire and that baby survived, while the remaining 14 died. The local broadcaster Geo TV, citing hospital sources, initially reported 15 infant deaths, but officials later confirmed a toll of 14 dead and one survivor.

Television footage showed rescue teams using ladders to reach the third-floor room through broken windows. Grieving parents and relatives gathered outside the hospital, some in tears, others demanding an explanation of how the fire started and whether the nursery had adequate fire safety equipment.

What caused the hospital fire?

The fire is believed to have been caused by an exploding air conditioner compressor, while rescue sources point to a short circuit in a faulty unit. The blaze stayed confined to the nursery, the rest of the hospital was undamaged, and officials and witnesses say no one else was injured. Islamabad’s chief commissioner, Suhail Ashraf, confirmed the fire was later brought under control.

In a post on X, Sharif offered his condolences to the families and announced an urgent investigation. As reported by Al Jazeera and the Associated Press, he said:

“A tragedy in which children die is an irreplaceable loss.”

One mother, who identified herself to the Associated Press as Mrs. Muhammad Sami, said she had given birth three days before the fire and that her baby was in intensive care in the nursery when the flames broke out:

“I don’t know what to say or who to blame. I lost my child.”

Health Minister Mustafa Kamal, who confirmed the death toll, said he was traveling from Karachi to Islamabad to personally oversee the investigation. Hospital spokeswoman Dr. Aniza Jalil said a doctor had carried one baby out of the fire and that six bodies had been handed over to families so far, with the rest to be released later.

Islamabad’s district magistrate has set up a fact-finding committee and ordered it to deliver a report within 24 hours on the cause and spread of the fire, the adequacy of fire safety measures, and the quality of the emergency response. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Prime Minister Sharif both expressed condolences to the families, as did Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, who called for those responsible to be brought to justice and urged hospitals to put effective fire safety measures in place.

The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences is one of the largest state-run hospitals in Islamabad, and the fire ranks among the deadliest hospital disasters in the country’s history. While the state offers subsidized treatment through public hospitals, the sector has for years been underfunded and overstretched, a strain that regularly raises questions about the state of its infrastructure and equipment.

This is not the first tragedy to kill children in Pakistan this year. In June, 14 schoolchildren died in Lahore when the roof of a tuition center collapsed during construction. In January, at least 65 people were killed when a fire tore through a crowded shopping mall in the port city of Karachi, one consequence of safety regulations and building codes that are often ignored or weakly enforced across the country.