(ANSA-AFP) - SKOPJE, SEP 9 - Fourteen people have died in a
fire at a hospital treating coronavirus patients in North
Macedonia, authorities said on Thursday. The fire broke out late
on Wednesday following an explosion in a Covid-19 clinic in
Tetovo in the northwest of the Balkan country, said Prime
Minister Zoran Zaev, who immediately headed to the town. "A huge
tragedy has occurred in the Tetovo Covid-19 centre," Zaev said
on Twitter overnight. "An explosion caused a fire. The fire was
extinguished but many lives were lost." At least 14 people died
in the disaster, the prosecutor's office later said in a
statement, raising the toll from the 10 deaths confirmed
overnight. "Prosecutors have ordered autopsies to identify the
bodies of the 14 people who died in the fire and we are looking
into whether there are others dead," the statement said. Health
Minister Venko Filipce had earlier expressed "profound
condolences" to the victims' families on Twitter. The fire broke
out as the former Yugoslav republic celebrated the 30th
anniversary of its independence, with festivities in the capital
Skopje, including a military parade. The blaze destroyed part of
the modular units recently built in front of the hospital to
accommodate Covid patients. Several hours after the disaster,
people walked past charred containers while stretcher bearers
went back and forth to rescue vehicles. - 'Fight for life' -
Investigators have gone to the site to try to determine the
cause of the disaster. Fire services were alerted to the blaze
at around 1900 GMT, and it took about 45 minutes to extinguish.
Construction work on the modular Covid unit only began in
December at the hospital in Tetovo, a town of around 50,000
people. "The fire was huge because the hospital is modular,
there was plastic," Tetovo deputy fire chief Saso Trajcevski
told local television. "We took out victims while we put out the
flames." Several injured people were transported to hospitals in
the capital. "The fight for life is still going on and all
services are doing everything they can to save people," Zaev
said earlier, expressing "deep condolences to the families and
of the deceased". "I wish the injured a quick recovery." North
Macedonia, with a population of around two million, is a poor
country with a rundown healthcare system. Hospitals are
overwhelmed in some areas, particularly where vaccination rates
are low. The country has reported a rise in coronavirus
infections recently, with the daily death toll reaching around
30. It has recorded more than 6,100 fatalities in total since
the start of the pandemic. Covid-19 hospitals in other countries
have been hit by explosions followed by fires. In Iraq, dozens
of people were killed in fires that occurred after oxygen
cylinders exploded in April and July (ANSA-AFP).
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