Iraq’s Mall Fire Kills More Than 60 People
Iraq’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement that 61 people
died, most of them from suffocation, in the fire that broke out late Wednesday
in the city of Kut. Among the dead were 14 charred bodies that remain
unidentified, it said, according to the report by AP.
Civil defense teams were able to rescue more than 45 people who
were trapped inside the building, the statement said.
The mall, which had opened only a week earlier, was in a
five-story building that also contained a restaurant and supermarket.
The state-run Iraqi News Agency reported that people remained
missing. Photographs and videos on local media showed the building fully engulfed
in flames.
Provincial Gov. Mohammed al-Mayyeh in a statement declared three
days of mourning. He said the cause of the fire is under investigation but that
legal cases were filed against the building owner and mall owner. He did not
specify what the charges were.
“We assure the families of the innocent victims that we will not
be lenient with those who were directly or indirectly responsible for this
incident,” al-Mayyeh said.
The results of the preliminary investigation will be released
within 48 hours, he said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani said in a statement
that he had directed the interior minister to go to the site of the fire to
investigate and take measures to prevent a recurrence.
Poor building standards have often contributed to tragic fires in
Iraq. In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in
the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah that killed between 60 to 92 people was determined
to have been fueled by highly flammable, low-cost type of “sandwich panel”
cladding that is illegal in Iraq.
In
2023, more than 100 people died in a fire at a wedding hall in
the predominantly Christian area of Hamdaniya in Nineveh province after the
ceiling panels above a pyrotechnic machine burst into flames.
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