Third hospital fire in three weeks as patients evacuated in Balad

SALAH AL-DIN — Patients were evacuated from Balad General Hospital early on Monday as Civil Defense crews contained a fire in a medical supplies store, the third fire at an Iraqi hospital in three weeks. No injuries were reported.

Firefighters cooled the site and stopped the fire spreading to other parts of the hospital, and an investigation has been opened with a forensic expert called to examine the scene.

Crews put out a fire in an electrical transformer at Ibn al-Haytham Hospital in Baghdad’s Karrada on Sunday, and a fire destroyed the medicine warehouse at al-Fayhaa Teaching Hospital in Basra last month, burning its contents.