Fire forces mothers, weak from giving birth, to save themselves

Narrow escape: Shann Amanda (right) with her bed neighbour Siti Zaiton Ab Malik who helped her carry her daughter during the fire at the hospital.

JOHOR BARU: New mothers, exhausted and weak from having just given birth, were put through a harrowing ordeal when they were forced to fend for themselves after fire broke out at the Hospital Sultanah Aminah.

The terrified mothers, some still recovering from a Caesarean operation days before, were asked to get up and walk down the stairs from level three of the five-storey block housing the hospital’s maternity ward. The fire broke out on the second floor of the building.