From Plasco to Gandhi Hospital; Iran’s Buildings Remain Unsafe and Dangerous
Domestic news agencies report that the fire at Gandhi Hospital in Tehran, which began on Thursday evening, November 5, was brought under control after several hours by firefighting personnel and according to officials “without human casualties.”
The fire, which according to the spokesperson of Tehran Municipality’s Fire Department Organization started from the building’s facade section and then engulfed the eastern section of the hospital, which mainly consisted of hotel and residential facilities, but fortunately resulted in no casualties.
Following the incident, Tehran’s governor said that hazard-prone structures should be made safe as quickly as possible. The crisis manager of Tehran Municipality’s District 6 said that in addition to Gandhi Hospital, hospitals Dey, Shariati, and most hospitals in central Tehran districts have received at least 3 safety warnings but have ignored them.
Pedram Pakain, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, said about this: “All patients at this hospital were safely evacuated and are being distributed to other hospitals in Tehran. Some patients who had stable conditions were also accommodated in a hotel adjacent to the hospital to later be transferred to another hospital.”
The deputy of medical affairs at the Ministry of Health also said about this: “During the fire, 93 patients were present at Gandhi Hospital in Tehran, 91 of whom were transferred to other medical centers. The other two who had come out of the operating room were also accommodated in a safe place to later be transferred to another hospital.”
The cause of this fire is still unknown, but investigations in this regard are ongoing.
From December 30, 2016, when the Plasco building caught fire in downtown Tehran and killed at least 22 people, to June 2, 2022, when the collapse of the Metropol in Abadan left 43 dead, many related and unrelated officials of the Islamic Republic have warned about the necessity of making public buildings safe in the country, especially in Tehran—a warning that has remained merely a warning to this day with no practical action reported in this regard.
Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, the Attorney General of the country, on Sunday, July 5, 2022, a few days after the Metropol incident, while attending a session of Tehran’s City Council, repeatedly mentioned the existence of unsafe and dangerous buildings in Tehran, particularly in the southern areas of the capital, and said that “if for any reason attention is not paid to warning and negotiating with the owners and residents of unsafe and dangerous buildings, use the capacity of the judiciary to prevent a repeat of the Metropol incident.”
Following this request, a list of 129 unsafe buildings in Tehran was released, most of which were shopping centers and residential complexes. In this list, the names of hospitals Buali, Fajr, Shahidaye Yaft Abad, Fayaz Baksh, Ghiathi, Ziaiyan, Tarafah, and Shah Abadi Medical Center, as well as universities Shahed, Technical and Vocational Dr. Shariati, and Imam Khomeini are also noticeable.
The head of Tehran University of Medical Sciences also said on June 18, 2022, that many private and government medical centers and hospitals in Tehran have fire department warnings, but if closed, treatment in Tehran would be disrupted, while there is insufficient budget to meet the needs of the hospital safety and reconstruction sectors.
The head of Tehran’s Crisis Prevention and Management Organization also said on December 7, 2023, that Tehran does not have a good situation in the field of hospital management. The safety condition of some hospitals is poor and most hospitals in the city of Tehran have the same status as Metropol and should be closed.
This is while Abdullah Gonji, a former member of the government’s media council, said this spring: “Iran is under sanctions and in maximum pressure, and is equipping 12 hospitals in Indonesia! Is it not interesting? Is there no pride in it?.”
Source: Voice of America
