Deadly fire at a wedding in Iraq kills at least 100 people
A fire broke out during a dance between the bride and groom at a wedding in northern Iraq, killing at least 100 people and injuring around 150. There’s no confirmation as to whether the bride and groom were among the victims or not.
Authorities say the death toll could rise as more people are treated. Flammable building materials contributed to the devastation of the fire that struck the small Christian minority in the Nineveh province just outside Mosul, according to The Associated Press.
What caused the fire at the Iraq Christian wedding?
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but AP reported that a Kurdish television news channel “aired footage showing pyrotechnics shooting flames up from the floor of the event and setting a chandelier aflame.”
“The fire led to the collapse of parts of the hall as a result of the use of highly flammable, low-cost building materials that collapse within minutes when fire breaks out,” Iraq’s civil defense directorate said, per BBC.
Hundreds of people were in attendance when the fire broke out.
“This was not a wedding. This was hell,” Mariam Khedr told Reuters. Khedr attended the wedding and lost her 27-year-old daughter and three grandchildren in the disaster.
It took firefighters 30 minutes to arrive after the fire began, and witnesses at the wedding told Reuters the hall “appeared poorly equipped for the disaster with no visible fire extinguishers and few exits.”
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