Dozens of people participated today, Thursday, in a mass in Qaraqosh to pray for the souls of the victims of a fire that broke out in a wedding hall in the town in northern Iraq, and the authorities say it was caused by “fireworks” and highly flammable building materials.
Black and sadness cover the features and clothing of female mourners in Qaraqosh (AFP)
At least one hundred people were killed and 150 others were injured, according to an infinite toll published by the authorities, as a result of the fire that broke out on Tuesday night in the wedding hall in Qaraqosh. There were about 900 guests in the hall, which did not meet safety conditions at the time of the fire, according to the Ministry of the Interior, and according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse.
On Thursday morning, Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani arrived in Nineveh Governorate, in order to “visit the injured and the families of the victims” and “evaluate the repercussions of the painful fire accident,” according to a statement from his office.
In the Al-Tahira Syriac Catholic Church in Qaraqosh on Thursday morning, women dressed in black sat on wooden benches, with sadness and pain on their faces. On another bench, a woman hugged a man sitting next to her who could not hold back his tears.
A woman cries among mourners as they attend a mass for the victims of the wedding hall fire in a church in Qaraqosh (AFP)
Among the participants were also some survivors, some of whom had their burned hands bandaged, as a journalist at Agence France-Presse witnessed. Pictures of the victims, including children, men and women, were placed around the church altar.
Women carry pictures of those lost in the fire (AFP)
Najiba Youhanna’s voice, 55 years old, trembled as she listed the names of her relatives who she lost in the fire. The woman says: “An indescribable feeling. I don’t know what to say. A very harsh feeling and sad pain in our hearts. This is a tragedy that will never be forgotten.”
Pope Francis visited the Church of the Immaculate in Qaraqosh in March 2021 during his historic tour of Iraq.
Like many Christian villages and towns in the Nineveh Plain, this town was severely destroyed at the hands of ISIS in 2014.
The majority of its people left this town when it fell into the grip of the extremist organization, but 26,000 Christians have since returned and it has been gradually rebuilt.
Mourners next to a coffin during the funeral of the victims of the deadly fire at a wedding in Hamdaniya (Reuters)
Safety instructions are often not adhered to in Iraq, especially in the construction and transportation sectors, and the infrastructure in this country is dilapidated as a result of decades of conflict, which repeatedly leads to the outbreak of fires and other deadly disasters.
According to eyewitnesses who spoke to Agence France-Presse, the fire destroyed the wedding hall at record speed.
A general view of the damaged building after a deadly fire at a wedding party in the Al-Hamdaniya area in Iraq’s Nineveh Governorate (Reuters)
The Iraqi Civil Defense said that “preliminary information” indicates that the cause of the fire was the use of fireworks during the wedding ceremony, which led to “a fire igniting inside the hall initially,” in addition to the use of “highly flammable” building materials that “violate safety instructions.” stipulated by law, which contributed to increasing the severity of the fire.
Mourners next to a coffin during the funeral of the victims of the deadly fire at a wedding in Hamdaniya (Reuters)
The Iraqi security forces arrested 14 people, “including 10 workers, the owner of the hall, and 3 involved in lighting fireworks during the incident,” according to the Ministry of Interior.
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2023-09-28 09:01:56
