ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A devastating fire that swept through a newborn nursery at one of Pakistan’s largest government hospitals has killed 14 babies, leaving grieving families demanding answers as investigators examine not only what ignited the blaze, but whether critical safety failures made the disaster far worse.
The fire broke out early on Wednesday, August 26, inside the third-floor nursery of the Mother and Child Hospital at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, widely known as PIMS, in Islamabad.
Hospital officials say 15 newborns were inside the nursery. Fourteen died and only one was rescued. The blaze was largely confined to the nursery, but its consequences have triggered national outrage and a widening investigation into fire prevention, emergency exits and the hospital’s response.
What actually caused the fire is still not settled
Initial reports suggested that an air-conditioning unit or compressor malfunctioned and triggered the blaze.
That explanation, however, is no longer the only theory being investigated.
PIMS later said in a preliminary account that an incident involving a nebulizer was linked to the start of the fire and that the high concentration of oxygen around the nursery helped flames spread with extraordinary speed.
An official Capital Development Authority fire report reviewed by Arab News listed an electrical short circuit or overloaded plug as the probable cause. Meanwhile, the chairman of Pakistan’s National Assembly Standing Committee on National Health Services questioned the air-conditioner theory after saying CCTV appeared to show that the unit was switched off.
That means one of the most basic questions surrounding the disaster — exactly what sparked the fire — remains unresolved. The government-appointed inquiry committee is expected to make its own determination.
But the bigger questions may be about what happened after the first spark
An official CDA fire report has raised potentially more serious concerns.
According to the report reviewed by Arab News, PIMS said the fire started at approximately 6:38 a.m. Yet the first emergency call recorded by the CDA came at 6:54 a.m. Firefighters were dispatched a minute later and the first crew arrived at approximately 7:01 a.m.
The report does not explain the roughly 16-minute gap between the hospital’s stated start of the fire and the first recorded emergency call.
For a neonatal unit containing oxygen equipment and critically vulnerable babies unable to evacuate themselves, those minutes are now at the center of scrutiny.
Fire investigators reported locked or obstructed escape routes
The same CDA report concluded that fire and life-safety arrangements at the hospital were inadequate and said emergency exits or escape routes were found either locked from outside or obstructed.
It also said hospital security personnel hindered firefighters during their initial response and cited problems with crowd management.
PIMS has disputed parts of that account.
The hospital said its emergency exits were open and operational and that doctors and nurses attempted to reach the babies as the fire intensified. PIMS said two doctors and two nurses were inside the nursery when the emergency began and that staff used dozens of fire extinguishers trying to control the flames.
Those conflicting accounts will now have to be reconciled by investigators.
Parents have also challenged the hospital’s version
Some relatives told Pakistani media that doors were locked or difficult to access and alleged that staff were not where they should have been when the emergency unfolded.
PIMS officials have rejected claims that medical personnel simply abandoned the nursery, saying doctors and nurses were present and participated in the rescue effort.
According to hospital officials, one doctor managed to save a baby from the nursery. Four additional babies were evacuated from an adjoining room, while three mothers and 73 patients from a nearby gynecology ward were also moved to safety.
The allegations from families remain allegations while the inquiry is underway, but they have intensified public pressure for investigators to establish an exact minute-by-minute timeline.
The hospital may also have lacked a key fire-safety clearance
Geo News reported on Thursday, citing sources, that PIMS did not have a fire-safety no-objection certificate, or NOC.
The report also raised broader questions about how healthcare facilities in Islamabad are inspected and licensed, saying the Capital Development Authority had previously warned the Islamabad Healthcare Regulatory Authority about issuing certificates to hospitals without adequate fire-safety arrangements.
Those claims have added another layer to the investigation: whether the disaster was an isolated equipment failure or a warning sign of weaknesses in the regulatory system itself.
That concern is reinforced by a wider CDA survey cited by Arab News. The authority examined about 6,500 public and private buildings in Islamabad in 2026, including roughly 300 government facilities, and found that most had not obtained required approvals for fire-safety plans or received completion and fire-safety certificates.
Government removes health secretary as inquiry begins
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif responded to the deaths by ordering a high-level investigation and removing Federal Health Secretary Aslam Ghauri from his position.
The inquiry is being led by retired federal secretary Shahid Khan. Investigators are expected to interview hospital employees, witnesses and grieving families while examining the physical nursery, its electrical and oxygen systems, fire-safety equipment and the emergency-response timeline.
The committee was instructed to provide urgent recommendations within 48 hours and a more comprehensive report within five days.
The deaths have also prompted authorities elsewhere in Pakistan to reconsider hospital safety. The government of Punjab, the country’s most populous province, ordered an immediate review of fire-prevention systems and emergency-response capabilities at healthcare facilities following the Islamabad tragedy. UNICEF has likewise called for stronger fire-prevention and safety standards at health facilities.
Pakistan has faced a similar tragedy before
The PIMS disaster has revived painful memories of another hospital fire involving newborns.
In June 2024, a fire at Sahiwal Teaching Hospital in Punjab killed 11 babies. An investigation later found serious fire-safety deficiencies, including expired fire extinguishers, according to reporting cited by Al Jazeera. Senior hospital officials were subsequently targeted for action by provincial authorities.
That history makes the latest deaths especially troubling because the questions now being asked are not entirely new: Were safety systems functioning? Were staff properly trained? Were escape routes usable? And could the deaths have been prevented?
One baby survived. Fourteen families are waiting for answers.
By Thursday, the bodies of all 14 newborns had been returned to their families for burial as mourners, hospital staff and civil-society groups gathered around PIMS.
A vigil outside the hospital became another expression of mounting anger and grief, with demonstrators calling for accountability rather than another investigation that ends without lasting reform.
The investigation has not yet established criminal or administrative responsibility, and it would be premature to conclude that any particular reported failure caused the babies’ deaths.
But the facts already established are devastating enough.
Fourteen newborns entered what should have been one of the safest and most closely monitored parts of a hospital and never came home.
The question facing Pakistan now is no longer simply what started the fire.
It is whether a small technical failure became a national tragedy because too many other safeguards failed at the same time.
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