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Several dead in Romania hospital fire

Authorities say at least five people have died in the fire that broke out on the ground floor of a hospital in Bucharest. The cause of the blaze still remains unknown.

Reuters

A firetruck is seen at the site of Covid-19 hospital Matei Bals, after a fire broke out in one of its buildings, in Bucharest, Romania on January 29, 2021.

A fire at a key hospital in Bucharest that also treats Covid-19 patients has killed at least five people, authorities have said.

The fire broke out around 0300GMT (5AM local) on Friday on the ground floor of the hospital and forced the evacuation of more than 100 people.

Some hospital staff could be seen later still wearing protective suits and face masks after rushing out.

An unspecified number of people were injured before firefighters put out the blaze, Romanian emergency services said in a preliminary report.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.

Other

The fire broke out early on Friday on the ground floor of the hospital.

Not the first incident

This is the third such incident in the past several months.

A fire at a Covid-19 intensive care unit in north Romania last November killed 10 people and another one at a psychiatric hospital in the same region the next month killed one more person.

“We found open flame at the ground floor of the building. ... There was a lot of smoke, and there was a chance the fire would spread to the second floor," said Orlando Schiopu, the commander of the intervention unit at the scene.

Read Arafat, the emergency department chief, said the four victims were all hospital patients.

Three of them were already dead when found while rescuers tried to resuscitate the fourth victim but could not, he said.

Authorities later said the body of one more victim has been found in hospital bathroom.

Hours later, charred balconies could be seen at the Matei Bals hospital, where health authorities organised the start of the anti-virus vaccination in Romania.

Ambulances and firefighting vehicles could be seen parked outside the hospital.

The Balkan country of some 19 million people so far has reported more than 700,000 Covid-19 cases and 18,000 deaths.