Hundreds of people were celebrating a wedding in the province of Nineveh, in northern Iraq, when the fire caught them early this Wednesday at the ceremony site: a fire has left at least 114 dead and more than 200 injured. and burns, reported the governor of Nineveh, Najm al Jubori. The hypothesis being considered is that the flames originated from the use of fireworks inside the room where there were highly flammable construction materials, according to preliminary investigations by the civil defense.
Emergency services encountered a horrendous scene in the small town of Al Hamdaniya, east of Mosul. The images show the charred skeleton of a building. Firefighters climbed over the remains of the structure with flashlights, illuminating the smoldering ruins with lights. Meanwhile, outside the establishment, dozens of people, relatives of the victims or neighbors, came to donate blood, according to a France Presse photographer.
Some relatives were also in front of the open doors of a refrigerated truck where several black bags with bodies were placed.
One of the witnesses, Imad Yohana, 34, told Reuters he managed to escape when he saw flames coming from a hallway. "Those who could get out and those who couldn't got stuck. And those who managed to get out were devastated," he said. At this time, the total number of attendees at the wedding is unknown.
Preliminary information indicated that the building was made of highly flammable construction materials, which contributed to its rapid collapse, according to state media.
"Preliminary information indicates that fireworks were used during a wedding, which caused a fire in the hall," civil defense authorities said in a statement published by the Arab network Al Jazeera and reported by EFE. “The fire caused some parts of the roof to collapse due to the use of highly flammable and low-cost construction materials that collapsed in a matter of minutes,” they added.
According to the researchers, the use of Ecobond plastic panels, the material that made up the facility, in this type of construction constitutes "a violation of safety instructions," while the facility lacked alarm and fire extinguishing systems. fires. Likewise, the burning of the plastic panels caused the emission of "toxic gases" that also left people injured and dead from asphyxiation, including women and children.
Rania Waad, 17, who suffered a burn on her hand, was in Hamdaniyah hospital for treatment with her sister. She told France-Presse in a broken voice that the bride and groom “danced slowly, the fireworks began to rise to the ceiling, the entire room burst into flames.” According to the teenager, there were many guests. "We didn't see anything, we were suffocating, we didn't know how to get out," she added.
Fires in facilities are common in Iraq, especially with the increase in summer temperatures and due to the lack of maintenance and the poor state of the infrastructure of a country that is still in the process of rebuilding after decades of war and sectarian violence.
The deadliest fire in recent years occurred in July 2021 at a hospital in Nasiriya, in the south of the country, where 60 coronavirus patients died, a tragedy that sparked street protests demanding that those responsible for the negligence be brought to justice. before Justice.
