Razia Noreen was preparing medicines for 15 vulnerable newborns when fire suddenly erupted inside the nursery at Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences on August 26. The 38-year-old nurse had only seconds to decide whether to escape the flames or risk her own life to save the babies entrusted to her care. Noreen rushed into the burning nursery and managed to carry out one critically underweight infant, weighing just 1,050 grams and dependent on oxygen support. She handed the baby to colleagues and immediately turned back, determined to rescue the others. But as she and duty doctor Dr. Rimsha tried to re-enter, an explosion sent intense heat and thick smoke through the nursery. Despite using their mobile phone flashlights and staying close to the ground, they could not get through. Within barely a minute, the nursery was engulfed, and 14 newborns lost their lives.
The tragedy has since raised serious questions about fire safety at the government-run hospital. An incident report cited inadequate and non-standard fire and life-safety arrangements and highlighted concerns over access and emergency exits, while PIMS officials disputed claims that exits were locked during the blaze. Noreen acknowledged that the nursery did not have a fire alarm system.
But beyond the investigation, Noreen says she continues to struggle with the emotional trauma of that morning. She says she has barely slept since the fire and remains haunted by the babies she could not save. The Pakistani government has honored her bravery with a ten-million-rupee award, but Noreen says the recognition means little compared with the lives lost. For her, the newborns were never simply patients. Nurses fed them, changed them, gave them medicine and monitored their fragile breathing when their families could not be there. “The nurse is the first mother,” Noreen says. And on that devastating morning, she says she was their first mother — carrying one child to safety while risking everything to reach the others.
