“The death toll is 114 and more than 200 injured,” Nineveh provincial governor Najim al-Zuburi said in a statement to reporters on the effects of the fire. The Iraqi Ministry of Health indicated that the “situation is under control” and that it was using “all its capabilities” to care for the victims.
The Iraqi Civil Defense explained that “firecrackers were used during a wedding, causing a fire at the venue”. He added in a note to reporters that the fire had led to “parts of the ceiling collapsing” due to the use of highly flammable construction materials that violated safety standards.
An AFP photographer saw several ambulances arrive at the main hospital in Hamdania, 335 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, east of Mosul.
Dozens of people, including relatives of the victims and residents, were present in the hospital yard to donate blood.
Najim al-Zuburi, who issued the first report indicating 100 deaths and more than 150 injuries, warned that some of the injured had been transferred to regional hospitals and that the death toll could rise.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani ordered all resources to be mobilized to help the victims.
In Iraq, safety standards are poorly respected in the construction and transportation sectors. With infrastructure in poor condition after decades of conflict, fires or fatal domestic accidents are common.
The fires are the latest disaster to hit Iraq’s Christian minority, which has been the target of violence over the past two decades by fundamentalists, first from al-Qaeda and later from the Islamic State militant group.
Although the Nineveh Plain, the historic home of Iraq’s Christians, was recaptured from the Islamic State group six years ago, some towns are still in ruins and without basic amenities.
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