Mother, toddler seriously injured in Beersheba apartment building fire

A mother in her 30s and her 1.5-year-old son were seriously injured in an apartment building fire in Beersheba on Wednesday night.

Six more building residents, including another toddler, were taken to the nearby Soroka Medical Center for treatment, suffering from minor to moderate injuries.

The Magen David Adom emergency service said the mother and her son were suffering from smoke inhalation and that the son was conscious but the woman was sedated and intubated in the intensive care unit (ICU).

The fire started in a four-story building in the southern city’s Dov Yosef Street.

Firefighters were still working to put out the fire late Wednesday night but were believed to have successfully evacuated the building of all residents.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the building fire.

In late December, a hospital patient was found dead after a fire erupted at Soroka.

The Israel Fire and Rescue Services said the blaze broke out in a hospital wing housing dozens of patients, who were evacuated by firefighters. Medical workers and the family of a patient were also cleared from the building. The fire service announced that a special investigative team was being set up to probe the incident.