More Than 100 Killed In Wedding Fire in Iraq
At least 100 people have died and 150 others injured after a fire broke out at a wedding in Northern Iraq.
It is not yet clear what caused the blaze, but early reports say it broke out after fireworks were lit.
Photos on social media show charred-out remains of the event hall in Qaraqosh in Iraq’s Nineveh Province.
The newly married couple are among the victims, according to the Deputy Head of the Nineveh Health Directorate.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society said more than 450 were killed and injured from the fire.
The exterior of the wedding hall that went up in flames was found to have been covered in cladding that is highly combustible and illegal in the country, the Iraqi news agency reports.
Cladding is a layer of protection from extreme heat or cold that is applied on the external surface of buildings. It can also be used for aesthetic purposes.
A type of cladding that uses metal composite and unmodified polyethylene was blamed for the quick spread of a fire that razed London’s Grenfell tower in 2017, killing 72 people. That material was banned on all buildings in 2022.
The fire happened in the Hamdaniya area of Iraq’s Nineveh province, authorities said. That’s a predominantly Christian area just outside of the city of Mosul, some 335 kilometers (205 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
There was no official word on the cause of the blaze, but the Kurdish television news channel Rudaw aired footage showing pyrotechnics shooting flames up from the floor of the event and setting a chandelier aflame.
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Multiple witnesses, including 50-year-old wedding attendee Faten Youssef, said the fire started as the bride and groom began their slow dance. The flames raced through plastic decorations and the ceiling started collapsing, she said.
“Flames started falling on us,” Youssef told The Associated Press. “Things were falling down and blocked the way to the exit.”
She said her family found their way out through a kitchen, after the family struggled through smoke and flames and her son failed to kick through a jammed exit door. Outside, video shot by a bystander showed a desperate effort to help those trapped inside, with one man trying to knock through a wall with an excavator.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the bride and groom were among those hurt.
Survivors arrived at local hospitals in bandages, receiving oxygen, as their families milled through hallways and outside as workers organized more oxygen cylinders. Some of those burned included children. Ambulance sirens wailed for hours after the fire as paramedics brought out the injured.
A Health Ministry official, speaking to the AP at midday Wednesday on condition of anonymity as he did not have authorization to talk to journalists, said that 30 bodies have been identified by their relatives, but the rest are so badly burned that will require DNA identification.
