Ten people died in a vast fire that broke out after an explosion in the Covid-19 ward of the hospital complex in Tetovo, North Macedonia. “A huge tragedy has occurred in the Covid-19 center in Tetovo,” said Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who visited the site of the massacre. “An explosion caused a fire. The fire was put out but many lives were lost,” the head of government added on Facebook.
“So far, 10 people have been found dead, but that number could increase,” Health Minister Venko Filipce tweeted. The fire occurred as the former Yugoslav Republic celebrated the 30th anniversary of its independence, with festivities organized in Skopje, including a military parade and a concert by the National Philharmonic Orchestra.
The explosion occurred for reasons not yet ascertained. Five prosecutors went to the scene to try to determine the causes of the tragedy. Firefighters were alerted around 9pm and reported having put out the fire in 45 minutes. “It was a huge fire and it spread also thanks to the large amount of plastic in the hospital modules,” the deputy commander of the Tetovo fire brigade, Saso Trajcevski, told local television. Several wounded were transported to hospitals in the capital.
The modular unit for Covid patients was built last year in the hospital complex of Tetovo, a town of about 52,000 inhabitants, many of whom belong to the Albanian minority of North Macedonia. The country, with two million inhabitants and a fragile health system, has for some time been experiencing an increase in infections due to the Delta variant and the lifting of restrictions during the summer. In some centers, hospitals are overwhelmed, especially where vaccination rates are still low and health authorities are reporting around 30 deaths a day related to the disease, which has killed more than 6,100 to date.
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