On 1 October 2021, at around 09:48 EET, a fire was reported to have started in the Constanța Hospital for Infectious Diseases at

Constanța Constanța (, , ) is a city in the Dobruja Historical regions of Romania, historical region of Romania. A port city, it is the capital of Constanța County and the country's Cities in Romania, fourth largest city and principal port on the Black ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...

s arrived at the scene at 09:56 EET, extinguishing the fire in less than an hour, at 10:50 EET.

Hospital

According to two analyzes of the Constanța Hospital for Infectious Diseases that had been carried out before the fire, the hospital had several problems. It had been built in 1938, had an old

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

and was constantly subject to reforms. Furthermore, it lacked a

fire safety Fire safety is the set of practices intended to reduce destruction caused by fire. Fire safety measures include those that are intended to prevent wikt:ignition, the ignition of an uncontrolled fire and those that are used to limit the spread a ...

system, had an insufficient and exhausted personnel and many patients had no

health insurance Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...

, along various other issues.

Fire

At the moment of the fire, there were about 125 patients in the hospital. 10 of them were located on an

intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensive care medicine. An inten ...

(ICU) for treatment against

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. Although local media originally reported ten deaths and the Constanța County Prefecture stated that nine people had died in the fire, this figure was later confirmed to be of seven people, with five dying during the fire and two passing out later in other hospitals to which they were transferred. All of the deceased were patients hosted in the ICU.

Aftermath

The event caused outrage in

and the authorities were accused of incompetence, as two hospital fires with several deaths had already occurred within the 12 previous months in the country, the first one being the November 2020

Piatra Neamț hospital fire On 14 November 2020, around 18:30 EET, a fire broke out in the COVID-19 ward of the Piatra Neamț Emergency Hospital in Piatra Neamț, Romania. The fire killed ten people and injured another four, including two doctors. All the deceased people ...

and the second being the January 2021

Matei Balș hospital fire Matei is a Romanian name. It is equivalent to the English name Matthew. As a given name * Matei Balș, Romanian bacteriologist *Matei Basarab, Wallachian Voivode between 1632 and 1654 *Matei Boilă, Romanian politician and priest *Matei Călines ...

. The

President of Romania The president of Romania () is the head of state of Romania. The president is directly elected by a two-round system, and, following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, serves for five years. An individual may serve two ter ...

Klaus Iohannis Klaus Werner Iohannis (; ; born 13 June 1959) is a Romanian politician, physicist, and former teacher who served as the fifth president of Romania from 2014 until his resignation in 2025. Prior to entering Politics of Romania, national politics, ...

, released a statement on the event, sending condolences to the relatives of the victims and stating that the Romanian state had failed in its mission to protect its citizens, criticizing the situation of the infrastructure of the country's health system and asking the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

and Ministry of Health of Romania that measures be taken to prevent another similar accident. The

President of Moldova The president of the Republic of Moldova () is the head of state of Moldova. The current president is Maia Sandu, who assumed office on 24 December 2020. Duties and functions The president "represents the State" and is "…the guarantor of n ...

Maia Sandu Maia Sandu (; born 24 May 1972) is a Moldovan politician who is serving as the sixth president of Moldova since 2020. She is the founder and former leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity and was Prime Minister of Moldova, prime minister o ...

, also sent her condolences to the relatives of the victims of the fire.

References

{{Klaus Iohannis 2021 disasters in Romania 2021 fires in Europe COVID-19 pandemic in Romania October 2021 in Romania Hospital fires in Romania Hospital fire

Hospital

Fire

Aftermath

See also

References