Fire at Lahore General Hospital’s gynaecology ward brought under control; 70 evacuated

LAHORE: A fire broke out in the gynaecology ward at Lahore General Hospital on Tuesday, triggering the evacuation of around 70 people, including pregnant women, from the building.

The fire originated in the ward’s exhaust fan system and quickly filled the ward and adjoining corridor with smoke, according to hospital sources. The blaze was brought under control shortly after it broke out.

All those evacuated, including pregnant patients, were moved out of the ward safely. A security guard’s health deteriorated after inhaling smoke from the fire, sources said. Hospital administration said the guard was undergoing treatment at the hospital’s emergency department and was out of danger.

Last week on August 26, fourteen infants died in a fire that broke out in the gynaecology ward of Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

A parliamentary committee investigating fire questioned hospital officials on Monday but could not establish a definitive cause. Health Minister Mustafa Kamal told the panel that conflicting accounts had blamed either an air conditioner or faulty electrical wiring, saying, “We are being lied to.” He said the fire had spread within around 120 seconds, and that despite references to an AC unit, a socket and other possible sources, the committee still did not know how the blaze started.

Kamal said he had kept himself separate from the investigation to preserve its impartiality and had offered the health ministry for scrutiny as part of the inquiry.

The proceedings also surfaced wider concerns about PIMS’s management, with the committee chairman describing the hospital as having become “a fiefdom” run by business interests rather than doctors, marked by poor coordination between departments.

Lawmakers separately raised a July 6 fire at the PIMS nurses’ hostel, which the ministry said it had not been formally informed about at the time. Committee members alleged evidence from that incident had been destroyed and called for the hospital’s suspended former executive director to be summoned and arrested.