Razia Noreen and her colleagues had just checked on the 15 newborns in their care at the hospital nursery in Islamabad and were preparing injections for some of them in an adjacent room when she saw noticed something unusual: flames.

The nurse dropped the syringe and ran into the nursery.

She lifted a baby into her arms, and pressed the child against her chest to shield it from the spreading fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, a major government hospital, which was already filling with thick smoke.