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Initial reports suggest that fireworks used during the wedding ceremony could be responsible for the fire.
At least 113 people have been killed and more than 150 injured in a fire that ripped through a wedding celebration in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, according to local officials and emergency services.
Nineveh’s deputy governor, Hassan al-Allaq, told Portal that 113 people had been confirmed dead so far. The fire reportedly started around 10:45 p.m. local time (19:45 GMT) on Tuesday evening.
Najim al-Jubouri, the provincial governor of Nineveh, warned early Wednesday that there were no final casualty figures from the fire, suggesting the death toll could rise.
“Every effort is being made to provide assistance to the victims of the unfortunate accident,” said Saif al-Badr, spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Health.
The official Iraqi news agency INA reported earlier that more than 150 people were also injured in the fire that destroyed an event hall in the Hamdaniyah provincial district where the wedding ceremony was taking place. Hamdaniyah is outside the northern city of Mosul, about 400 km (about 250 miles) northwest of the capital Baghdad.
According to Iraqi Civil Defense, initial reports suggested that fireworks used during the celebration may have been the cause of the fire. “Preliminary information suggests that fireworks were used at a wedding, causing a fire in the hall,” civil defense authorities said in a statement early Wednesday.
Security forces stand guard alongside ambulances at a hospital where people were taken for treatment after a fire that devastated a wedding party in Iraq’s Nineveh province, September 27, 2023 [Khalid Al-Mousily/Reuters]Reporting from Baghdad, Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed said fireworks were a common part of wedding celebrations in Iraq and that around 1,000 people were reportedly present at the celebration when the fire broke out.
Combustible materials during the construction of the event hall are suspected to have contributed to the major fire, Abdelwahed said, adding that the building did not appear to have “adequate security measures” including emergency exits.
Iraqi Civil Defense also reported the presence of prefabricated panels in the event hall that were “highly flammable and violated safety standards.”
“The fire led to the collapse of some parts of the ceiling due to the use of highly flammable, inexpensive construction materials,” said the statement from civil defense authorities.
Images of the fire’s aftermath showed rescue workers climbing over rubble and a collapsed roof with twisted and charred metal in the gutted event hall.
An emergency responder walks over debris at the scene of a fire during a wedding celebration in Hamdaniyah district, Nineveh province, Iraq, Sept. 27, 2023 [Khalid Al-Mousily/Reuters]Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered an investigation into the fire and asked for help from the country’s interior and health authorities, his office said in an online statement.
Video clips posted on social media, said to have been taken in the moments before the fire broke out, showed burning pieces of paneling falling from the venue’s ceiling. Wedding guests also jump up from tables and try to get to safety.
The Iraqi Health Ministry said “trucks carrying medical assistance” were sent to Nineveh from Baghdad and other provinces.
Nineveh Province, Iraq [Al Jazeera]