5 killed in Romania's COVID-19 hospital fire

The police found one more dead body in the hospital ward that caught fire early Friday in Bucharest, capital of Romania, increasing the death toll to five, reported Xinhua.

"I have this confirmation for the fifth victim. I can confirm that the charred body was found in the bathroom," Minister of Internal Affairs Lucian Bode was quoted as saying by the official news agency Agerpres.

Thus, the death toll rose to five, after three people were found charred and another was declared dead after being resuscitated.

The fire broke out in a ward of some 30 square meters on the ground floor of a ward building in the National Institute for Infectious Diseases Matei Bals, the most important COVID-19 designated hospital in the country. A total of four wards were affected before the fire was extinguished.

"The only thing I heard was 'stay in the room' when the smoke started to spread. Then I heard the explosion, the light went out, the oxygen I was inhaling stopped, and there was silence. Only the firefighters could be heard on the ground floor," a patient told local media.

As many as 102 patients in and near the ward ablaze have been evacuated quickly, 53 of whom were transferred to other medical units in the capital, said Raed Arafat, secretary of state who heads the Emergency Situations Department at Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"There are no other people who suffered serious problems," and the ward that caught fire "was not an Intensive Care Unit," he said.

According to reports from local TV stations, the fire may have been caused by an electric heater, a claim that has not been confirmed by the hospital or any officials. The cause of the fire is now being investigated.

This is the second hospital fire that caused casualties in the country in less than three months. On Nov. 14, 2020, over ten COVID-19 patients were killed in a fire that broke out in the intensive care unit of the Piatra Neamt County Hospital in northeastern Romania.