On the brink
A major fire at Abul-Reesh Hospital last week resulted in the death of two children. It could have been much worse, reports Dena Rashed
The blaze began in a storage room for blankets on the fourth floor of the Abul-Reesh pediatrics public hospital at around 9am on 15 January. Although the fire did not spread to other floors, the hospital's fourth floor was completely gutted, and its fifth floor filled with smoke, which resulted in the deaths of two children, and the severe injury of another.
With 260 children at the hospital -- nearly all of them accompanied by their mothers -- the situation could have been much worse. The consensus was that doctors and nurses were successful in quickly evacuating the hospital and containing the fire.
"We contained the fire very quickly, and are proud of our team," said Dr Nasser Abdel-Aal, the head of the neonatal unit. It was lucky that the fire occurred at 9am, Abdel- Aal belives. Had it been midday, "doctors would have been in the midst of operations," which would certainly have made things far more difficult.
Abdel-Aal credits discipline as the main factor that saved lives that day. According to Amina Hindawi, the hospital director, the staff was not trained by the hospital to handle fires, but "they still managed, on their own, to contain the situation".
Preliminary investigations revealed that the fire was caused by two nurses using small kerosene stoves to prepare food and tea in the storage room. Last year's Aswan-bound train inferno, which resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives, was also thought to be caused by improper use of similar stoves. The nurses have been charged with negligence, misappropriation of public funds, involuntary manslaughter, and involuntary injury.
A day after the fire, the hospital's fourth and fifth floors still reeked of smoke. On the fifth floor, the mother of a 10-year-old girl, Sarah, said that her daughter -- who has heart disease -- had not eaten since the fire. "We were having breakfast when we smelt smoke and heard someone asking us to close the door, which we did. A bit later, doctors and nurses came into the room and carried my daughter away." The mother credits the staff with saving her daughter's life. "She was too heavy for me to carry and run with on my own, and it was very scary since you could hardly see two inches in front of you," she said.
Saida Abdel-Gawad, who was staying with her two kids on the fourth floor, said they were lucky to have been away from their room when the fire took place. "When we got back," she said, "we found that all our clothes had burnt."
The biggest challenge for the doctors and nurses was dealing with those babies who were in incubators, since they need the constant supply of oxygen delivered through the incubators' tubes. According to Karima Mohamed, the mother of a four-month-old child with breathing problems, "the doctors were quick to provide oxygen for the child, and transfer us to another public hospital nearby."
Other children were immediately placed in properly-equipped ambulances. Ashagan Abdullah, the mother of a one-year old, also praised the evacuation, and said it seemed like the other hospitals they were sent to were well-informed, and ready to receive the new patients. "We were all accompanied by two or more doctors who were clearly afraid of losing any child." she said.
