6, including a child, killed in a fire at a Bangladesh hospital

An emergency fire broke out on the afternoon of Monday, September 14, 2026, in the newly constructed eight-story building of Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH) in Bangladesh. Although the fire department managed to control the fire in less than an hour, six people, including an unidentified child about one year old, died due to the stampede caused by the panic that ensued.

Nearly twenty more people were injured in this incident.

This tragic situation arose when people attempted to exit the building via narrow staircases during the fire. According to reports, four out of the five staircases in the building were closed and locked, with only one narrow path remaining open. The deaths occurred due to people falling and being trampled in the severe congestion as patients, hospital staff, and relatives tried to flee simultaneously; no one died from burn injuries or smoke inhalation.

The fire started between 5:45 PM and 6:00 PM near the elevator control room, and thick smoke rapidly spread through the electrical conduit passage up to the eighth floor. This severely disrupted several departments, including Intensive Care Units (ICU), Combined Care Units (CCU), and pediatric wards. Firefighting units from Mymensingh Sadar and Bangladesh Agricultural University jointly brought the fire completely under control by 7:30 PM.

Preliminary investigations suspect that the fire may have been caused by accumulated garbage in the electrical conduit control room, which had been inoperative for some time, and either an electrical short circuit or a discarded lit cigarette butt. A high-level investigation committee has been appointed to conduct a full inquiry into the incident, and the site of the incident was inspected by local public representatives and senior police officials.

Those who died in this tragedy are Hajera Begum (50) from Netrokona, Shahjahan (40) from Phulbaria, Ramzan (38), Jahanara (50), Kulsuma (35) from Tarakanda, and an unidentified child about one year old. This is the second fire incident at this hospital in 2026; previously, a fire broke out on January 17, 2026, in a storage room of the pediatric ward on the sixth floor of the same building.