'Give me my child back': Grief and anger after infants die in Pakistan hospital fire

Parents who lost their days-old babies in a fire that killed 14 infants on Wednesday at a maternity ward in Islamabad described how they cried desperately for help that took hours to arrive.

What caused the Islamabad hospital fire?

Pakistani authorities blamed a faulty air conditioner for the fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), a public hospital, and said there was no delay in help reaching the parents and infants trapped inside. A hospital spokeswoman, Aneeza Jalil, told AFP the fire was caused by an electrical fault and "fire sparked" from an air conditioner.

Ali Abbas, 20, who was with his sister in the ward, described a short circuit in the nursery. "There was a short circuit in the nursery, in the children's ward," he said. "It was full of smoke."

Was there a delay in the emergency response?

"For two hours I kept crying and wailing," said Jaweria, whose baby died after the fire broke out around dawn on the third floor of PIMS. "Rescue teams arrived too late. Police arrived after four hours and said they are here to investigate. To hell with you, rescue team and police. Babies burnt to death there, but nobody could save them."

Khurram Mehmood, a 40 year old father, told AFP the fire erupted at 6:00 am but rescue and authorities did not reach the scene until 9:00 am, leaving people to help themselves. "I lost my daughter. She was only three days old. My wife was in the ward. They took everyone out. We were sitting on the road waiting for help."

Several witnesses, their hands and faces blackened from the smoke, told AFP they waited hours for help from emergency services. They were forced to smash through windows to try to reach the neonatal intensive care unit.

Were exits blocked during the fire?

Some witnesses said they came across locked doors and guards preventing those inside the building from leaving as the fire raged. Eyewitness Abdul Ghafoor described thick black smoke and patients trapped inside.

"I barged in to try to save as many people as I could, but we could not reach the ward where the patients were," he said. "The fire was in the nursing room, and we could not see anything. Some of us broke the windows to help people get out."

Another witness, who did not give her name, said her sister-in-law was in the ward with her baby. "I was with her," she said. "They were not letting them out and the guards were stopping them. People had to break the door down and rescue teams had to break the windows to control the fire."

What has Pakistan's government said about the fire?

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered an investigation, saying in a statement that "those responsible should be identified and the strictest possible action should be taken." Jaweria, the mother who lost her baby, questioned the actions of hospital staff and emergency responders.

"My demand is, I want justice," she told AFP. "Why did the doctors leave the children there? One nurse, one doctor, one gynaecologist, one paediatrician, there was nobody in the entire ward. Why were they not there? Give me my child back."