8 coronavirus patients die after lung ventilator bursts into flames inside ICU in Turkey

Eight people have died after a fire broke out inside an ICU for Covid-19 patients at a hospital in Gaziantep, southern Turkey. The blaze was caused by a lung ventilator, officials said.

The fire at the SANKO University Hospital was caused by one of the ventilators exploding, the regional governor’s office said in a statement. Seven patients died in the ward and another died later while being moved to another clinic. The victims were aged between 56 and 85.

Fourteen patients were evacuated and brought to other hospitals nearby.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, tweeted that first responders and investigators were dispatched at the scene. An official probe has been launched into the incident.

Faulty lung ventilators can cause fires as a result of short circuits and oxygen tanks exploding. Russia briefly banned the use of Aventa-M type ventilators after deadly fires in two Covid-19 hospitals in Moscow and Saint Petersburg earlier this year. The company that made them was fined for violating product testing guidelines. 

In September, a ventilator burst into flames inside a hospital ward in India’s Gujarat region, and a similar incident occurred in Mumbai a month later.

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