AGI – At least 100 people were killed and more than 150 injured due to a fire that broke out during a wedding at a function hall in the city Hamdaniyah, northern Iraqsays the first published balance sheet.
At the main hospital in Hamdaniyah – a predominantly Christian town east of Mosul, also known as Qaraqosh – an AFP photographer saw the arrival Ambulances with sirens wailing and dozens of people gather in the courtyard to donate blood. People were also seen gathering outside the open doors of a refrigerated truck carrying several black body bags.
Health authorities in Nineveh province, where the city is located, “counted 100 dead and more than 150 injured in the fire at a wedding hall in Hamdaniyah,” Iraq’s official INA news agency reported, citing a “preliminary count.” The count was confirmed by a spokesman for the country’s Ministry of Health.
In a statement, civil protection authorities reported the presence of prefabricated panels “highly flammable and violate safety standards” in the event room where the fire broke out. “The fire resulted in the collapse of portions of the ceiling due to the use of highly flammable, low-cost construction materials,” the statement said. “Preliminary information suggests that fireworks were used at a wedding, which started the fire in the hall.”
In a brief statement, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani called on the health and interior ministers to “mobilize all relief efforts” to help the victims of the fire.
The Ministry of Health announced that “medical aid cart” were sent to the area from Baghdad and other provinces, adding that their teams had been mobilized in Nineveh to treat the wounded.
Like many Christian towns in the Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh and its churches were systematically looted by jihadists from the Islamic State group after they entered the city in 2014. After the group’s fall in 2017, the city was slowly rebuilt, and was the site of a visit by Pope Francis in March 2021.
Safety standards in the construction and transportation sectors in Iraq are often ignored and the country, the CuThe infrastructure is in ruins after decades of conflict, is regularly the scene of fires and fatal accidents. In the July 2021, a fire in the Covid department of a hospital in the south of the country killed more than 60 people. In April of the same year, an oxygen tank explosion caused a fire in a Baghdad hospital also intended for Covid patients, killing more than 80 people.
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