Fire broke out before dawn on Aug. 26 in the neonatal unit on the third floor of the maternal and child health block at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad. Officials said 14 newborns died and that only one of the 15 infants present was carried out, by a doctor.

The hospital said an explosion in air-conditioning equipment on the third floor spread the blaze. Among the dead was a baby only three hours old.

Questions about the response

Parents and witnesses at the scene described a slow initial response. Whether alarms and sprinklers operated, and whether evacuation routes were clear, have all been questioned.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was deeply saddened, ordered an immediate investigation and promised strict action against anyone found responsible. A senior federal health official was suspended.

A recurring kind of disaster

Fires in neonatal intensive care units have caused repeated mass casualties across South Asia. Such wards combine elevated oxygen levels with dense electrical equipment including incubators, so fire spreads fast — and the patients cannot evacuate themselves.

Specialists list separation of electrical equipment from oxygen-enriched zones, automatic suppression systems and dedicated neonatal transfer equipment as minimum requirements. This fire asks again whether those standards are being met in practice.