No fewer than 100 people were killed while more than 150 were injured on Tuesday night when a fire broke out at a wedding in the northern Iraqi town of Hamdaniyah, state media and health officials have reported.
At the main hospital in Hamdaniyah, a predominantly Christian town east of Mosul, an AFP photographer saw several ambulances arriving with sirens blaring and dozens of people gathering in the courtyard to donate blood while some were seen gathering at the doors of a refrigerated truck carrying several black body bags.
The civil defence authorities in a statement reported the presence of prefabricated panels that were “highly flammable and contravened safety standards” inside the event hall where the blaze took place.
“The fire caused some parts of the ceiling to fall due to the use of highly flammable, low-cost construction materials”, the statement said.
“Preliminary information indicates that fireworks were used during the wedding, which triggered a fire in the hall”.
It was not clear if the bride and the groom were among the victims. Initial reports in Iraqi media said they had died in the blaze with news agency, but later reported that they were alive and were being treated for burns.
Iraq’s prime minister posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had directed officials to mobilise all efforts to provide relief to those affected by the unfortunate incident.
Safety standards in Iraq’s construction and transport sectors are often disregarded and the country, whose infrastructure is in disrepair after decades of conflict is regularly the scene of fatal fires and accidents.
In July 2021, a fire in the Covid unit of a hospital in the country’s south killed more than 60 people.
And in April of the same year, exploding oxygen tanks triggered a fire at a hospital in Baghdad dedicated to Covid patients that left more than 80 people dead.
