In the northern Nineveh region of Iraq, a wedding party was destroyed by fire, leaving at least 113 people dead and more than 150 injured, according to local authorities and emergency services.
Over 100 deaths have been officially reported as of this writing, according to Nineveh's deputy governor Hassan al-Allaq.
Tragedy Engulfs Wedding in Northern Iraq, Claiming 113 Lives
According to reports, the fire broke out on Tuesday night at 10:45 p.m. local time (19:45 p.m. GMT). The injured were transported to hospitals in Nineveh and the Kurdistan region, Nineveh governor Najm Al-Jubouri informed the Iraqi national news agency INA.
Videos taken from the scene show the Al Haytham Wedding Hall spewing dense smoke as people and ambulances assemble outside. The bride and groom were safe but saddened, a wedding attendee informed the local media. Although the actual cause of the fire is yet unknown, early signs point to fireworks as its ignition source, as per Aljazeera.
It's possible that the venue's flammable panels fed the fire, forcing some of the ceiling to burn and fall. Because of the use of cheap, highly flammable building materials that burn up in minutes, the fire caused parts of the hall to collapse, according to the Iraqi civil defense directorate, which was quoted by the state news agency INA.
The bride and the groom's identities were initially unknown, but a local health official later revealed during a press conference that they had passed away.
Numerous firefighters can be seen battling the blaze in a snapshot Nina shared, and images posted on social media by regional media outlets reveal the event hall's burned-out interior. On Wednesday morning, it was visible that firefighters were traversing the building's rubble in an effort to find survivors.
As the bride and groom were slow dancing, pyrotechnics started to climb to the ceiling, the whole hall went up in flames, according to Rania Waad, another wedding guest who had burns to her hand. Hassan al-Allaq, the deputy governor of Nineveh, told Reuters that 113 deaths had been verified; however, the state news agency INA estimated that at least 100 people had died and 150 had been injured.
As reported by the region's governor to INA, the injured have been taken to hospitals all throughout Nineveh. Dozens of people showed up at the major hospital in Qaraqosh, which is east of the area's capital Mosul, to donate blood to assist the injured. In Iraq, the town of Qaraqosh is sometimes referred to as al-Hamdaniya and Bakhdida.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, the prime minister of Iraq said that he had instructed officials to "mobilise all efforts to provide relief to those affected by the unfortunate incident." The interior and health ministers were urged to mobilise all rescue efforts to aid the fire victims in a brief statement by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani. He also launched an investigation, according to CNN.
Aid Dispatched to Northern Iraq's Nineveh Plains Amidst Tragedy
The ministry of health, medical aid trucks had been sent from Baghdad and other provinces to the area, and its personnel in Nineveh had been activated to provide care for the injured. Qaraqosh and its churches were meticulously pillaged by jihadists from the Islamic State group when they took control of the town in 2014. This happened in the Nineveh Plains, as it did with many other Christian towns.
Following the group's defeat in 2017, the town underwent a long reconstruction process. In March 2021, Pope Francis paid the town a visit. ecause of this, and because of the nation's crumbling infrastructure brought on by decades of war, fatal fires and accidents frequently occur in the construction and transportation sectors in Iraq.
Over 60 individuals were killed in a hospital fire in the southern region of the country in July 2021 while working in the COVID-19 unit. A fire that was started by exploding oxygen tanks in April of the same year killed more than 80 people at a hospital in Baghdad that was specifically for Covid-19 patients, BBC reported
