Al-Kadoumi and Muhammad Al-Malki Okaz/Saudi Gazette JAZAN — The Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jazan Province has demanded that Jazan General Hospital be relocated to another site and whoever is found negligent in supervising the construction of the medical tower in the hospital or those who operated it without finalizing safety measures should be taken to task. A blaze on Thursday tore through the intensive care unit and maternity ward at the general hospital killing 31 people and injuring over a hundred. The HRC intends to submit a report to the King on the tragedy in the hospital. Dr. Ahmed Al-Bahkali, supervisor general of the HRC in the province, asked the Ministry of Health to relocate the hospital to another site away from its current location in the middle of residential areas. He disclosed that the building has many construction flaws and lacks safety measures. "If this is the case in the second best hospital in the province which has engineering errors and means of safety are nonexistent, how will the situation be in the other peripheral hospitals located in the vicinity of the southern borders or on the mountains and other locations?" asked Al-Bahkali. He questioned the closure of emergency exits which were converted into warehouses. He said that the discovery of electricity cables in the sanitary drainage manholes indicates that the electrical wiring system was carried out in a slipshod manner and there was lack of supervision by the Ministry of Health. Meanwhile, the two female nurses Nujood Ibrahim Humood and Amira Ismail are being praised for their bravery in saving the lives of many infants. They risked their lives to rescue seven infants lying in the incubators. Narrating the incident, Humood told Okaz that after midnight saw a fire next to the nursery in a room. When smoke started rising female guards and security men arrived and asked the nurses to leave the place. "I told my female colleague Amira that we must evacuate the infants from the nursery. But the main door was closed due to the power outage. We smashed it with a fire extinguisher and carried the babies in bed sheets to a safe place outside. While we were leaving, pieces from the roof started falling on us. Then the whole place caught fire. I am still in a state of shock." She added: "Thanks to Allah, we were able to rescue all the seven infants." She said she was astonished to find that the fire alarm did not function, as the fire had started a long time before and nobody was aware of it.Civil Defense teams in Al-Baha, south of Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, contained a chemical leak inside a chemical laboratory in Al-Baha University. A member of the teaching committee noticed the leak and immediately contacted the Civil Defense fearing that a fire might start at anytime. The rapid intervention team of the Civil Defense fixed the problem and secured the area.
