5 Babies Die in Orphanage Fire
Pastor Dale Morgan
5 Babies Die in Orphanage Fire*
The Associated Press
Sunday, April 22, 2007; 6:43 AM
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- A fast-moving fire tore through an
orphanage in Bosnia's capital early Sunday, killing five babies and
injuring 17 others and a nurse, police and hospital officials said.
The blaze broke out on the third floor of the Ljubica Ivezic orphanage
in downtown Sarajevo around 6 a.m. and rapidly spread to three rooms
where the babies were sleeping, according to the Sarajevo fire brigade.
Children's cots are seen in smoke blackened room at an orphanage in
Sarajevo, Bosnia's capital, after a fire at the orphanage killed five
children and injured at least 17 on Sunday April 22, 2007. The fire at
the Ljubica Ivezic orphanage in downtown Sarajevo started around 6 a.m.,
said police spokesman Dragan Furtula. A nurse working at the orphanage
was also among the injured.
Three boys and two girls were killed, and 17 other babies were injured,
two of them critically. A nurse trying to save the children was also
injured, suffering burns to her hands and face, said Dubravko Champara
of the Sarajevo prosecutor's office.
Charred cradles, baby beds and teddy bears were scattered around the
three gutted rooms, and smoke continued to drift through corridors hours
after the fire.
Shocked neighbors stood in front of the orphanage as water from fire
hoses gushed down the smoldering building's walls and stairs.
"These children have such bad luck; first they are orphaned and now as
babies they die in fire," said one woman, still in her nightgown, who
identified herself only as Munira.
The orphanage was evacuated and its officials declined to comment. Some
children were to return later to wings of the large building that were
not affected by the fire, Champara said.
Firefighters said the flames raced through the building so quickly that
even though they extinguished the blaze in around 10 minutes they were
not fast enough to save all of the children.
Firefighters rescued 23 children from the three rooms that were worst
affected by the fire.
"All the children we hospitalized are babies," said Biljana Jandric, a
spokeswoman for Sarajevo Kosevo hospital. "One baby was dead on arrival
and for the other four everything was done but we could not save them."
Authorities do not know what caused the fire, and an investigation has
begun, said police spokesman Dragan Furtula.