A devastating fast-spreading fire that claimed the lives of 14 newborns in a government hospital nursery in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad has triggered public outrage, official probes and sweeping calls for safety overhauls across the country’s health facilities. As grieving families demand accountability for the tragedy, an investigative committee appointed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched on-site inquiries Thursday at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the major public medical facility where the blaze broke out early Wednesday.
The fire was limited exclusively to the third-floor neonatal nursery, leaving the rest of the hospital undamaged. But the blaze spread with alarming speed that left frontline staff unable to save most infants: only one of the 15 babies being cared for in the unit at the time was rescued by two attending doctors, two nurses and other on-duty personnel, hospital authorities confirmed.
By Thursday, the atmosphere across PIMS was heavy with grief, as medical staff, patients and family members mourned the lost newborns. Access to the fire-ravaged third-floor nursery area was tightly restricted to preserve the scene for investigators. The five-member investigative panel, headed by retired federal secretary Shahid Khan, is tasked with collecting statements from hospital staff, eyewitnesses and bereaved families, with a tight deadline to deliver urgent policy recommendations to Sharif within 48 hours, followed by a full detailed investigative report within five working days.
Conflicting preliminary accounts of the fire’s origin have deepened calls for an independent inquiry. Initially, hospital and district officials claimed an exploding air conditioning unit triggered the blaze. But a revised preliminary statement from the hospital later revised the cause to an explosion involving a medical nebulizer, noting that high oxygen concentrations in the neonatal unit allowed the fire to spread across the space in just minutes. The city administration emphasized that the appointed committee will carry out an independent assessment to determine the definitive cause, with no conclusions yet reached.
Overnight following the tragedy, authorities released all 14 victims’ bodies to their families for burial. In the wake of the deaths, top officials have ordered wide-ranging audits of fire safety protocols and firefighting infrastructure at all healthcare facilities across Pakistan. In Punjab, the country’s most populous province, a government official statement confirmed that local authorities have directed the provincial Health Department to complete immediate reviews of fire safety systems and emergency response capabilities at all hospitals under its jurisdiction.
Prime Minister Sharif has already taken disciplinary action following the tragedy, removing Aslam Ghauri from his post as Health Secretary, the top civil servant leading the country’s Health Ministry. Grieving parents have publicly pressed for full transparency, demanding clear answers about both the origin of the fire and whether the nursery had sufficient functioning firefighting equipment to prevent the mass casualties.
The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF released a statement expressing profound sorrow over the deaths, adding its voice to calls for an urgent review and immediate strengthening of fire prevention and safety standards at all health facilities across Pakistan.
The nursery fire is the latest in a string of deadly tragedies involving children in Pakistan this year. Just two months prior, in June, 14 schoolchildren lost their lives when the roof of an under-construction private tutoring center collapsed in the eastern city of Lahore, highlighting systemic gaps in public safety regulation across multiple sectors.