At least 100 people were killed and 150 others injured when it erupted fire in a room where it was held wedding party in northern Iraq, according to a “provisional count” announced today by the authorities. The flames destroyed the banquet hall where it was full of guests last Tuesday night Wedding in the Christian town of Karakos, also known as Hamdaniya.
According to the rescue crews, for the tragedy the “fireworks” that were thrown inside the hall, the “particularly flammable building materials” from which it was made, and the fact that there were no emergency exits are to blame.
Shortly after midnight, an AFP photographer saw several ambulances arrive at the main hospital in Hamdaniyah, east of Mosul. Dozens of people were gathered in the corridors of the hospital, among them relatives of the victims. Others were waiting outside a refrigerator truck in which the bodies of the dead were placed in bags, reports APE-MPE.
Closed emergency exits
The health authorities of Nineveh province, where Karakos is located, “have recorded 100 dead and more than 150 injured from the fire,” the official INA news agency reported, citing a “preliminary count,” while many officials cited conflicting numbers. “Most injured have suffered burns or suffocated,” said Health Ministry spokesman Saif al-Badr, who also spoke of trampling.
Among the victims are “men, women and children,” said Jaudat Abdel Rahman, a spokesman for Civil Protection. Nezm al-Jubouri, governor of Nineveh province, declared a week of mourning.
The Civil Protection said that in the banquet hall there were prefabricated curtains “particularly flammable that did not comply with the safety rules”. “Preliminary information indicates that fireworks were used (inside), which caused the fire in the hall”, according to a statement from the service. From the flames “pieces of the roof fell, as highly flammable and low-cost building materials had been used”, the same source pointed out.
Civil Protection spoke of “the release of toxic gases due to the burning of curtains” that contained plastic.
“The emergency exits were closed, there was only the central entrance”said Abdel Rahman.
Video of the wedding ceremony, posted on social media, appears to show flames engulfing the ceiling decoration of the hall as shouts of excitement give way to screams of panic. Another video shows the newlyweds dancing as chunks of burning material begin to fall from the ceiling.
Arrests
Interior Ministry spokesman General Saad Maan said that “nine workers have been arrested” while “they have been extradited four arrest warrants against the owners’ of the hall. In Iraq, safety rules are rarely respected, both in the construction and transportation sectors, resulting in frequent fatal fires or accidents in the country.
In July 2021 a fire in the covid ward of a hospital in southern Iraq had claimed the lives of more than 60 people. A few months earlier, in April, an explosion of oxygen tanks caused a fire in a Baghdad hospital, killing more than 80 people. Today, in a statement, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani asked the health and interior ministers to “mobilize all means of rescue” to help the victims of the tragedy.
Source: News Beast
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