BUCHAREST – Ten Covid-19 patients were killed and others are in critical condition after a fire broke out in an intensive care unit in northeast Romania yesterday, said a hospital spokesman.
The fire occurred in the early evening in the ICU of the hospital in the town of Piatra Neamt. It was brought under control an hour later by the emergency services.
“Ten people have been declared dead and seven people are in critical condition”, including a doctor, said spokesman Irina Popa.
Eight of the victims died in the flames and two others were pronounced dead following their evacuation.
The doctor on duty, who tried to help the victims, suffered second- and third-degree burns to 80% of his body, said the rescue service.
The cause of the blaze is unclear, and the prosecutor-general has opened an inquiry into the tragedy. The Health Ministry suggested that the fire could have been caused by an electrical short circuit.
Largely spared when the first virus wave hit Europe, Romania has in recent weeks seen mounting numbers of cases and hospitalisations.
Yesterday, it reported 129 new virus fatalities, bringing total deaths to 8,813 since the start of the pandemic.
The country of 19 million is one of the poorest in the European Union, and ill-equipped to deal with a spike in hospitalisations.
Its dilapidated health system suffers from a severe shortage of doctors, especially in small towns.
The incident yesterday is the deadliest fire in Romania since October 2015, when a pyrotechnics display caused a blaze at a nightclub here that left 64 people dead. – AFP, November 15, 2020
