At a wedding party in Iraq, fireworks meant for celebrating a Christian wedding reportedly caused a raging fire that consumed a hall filled with people. 100 people have been said to have lost their lives, with another 150 seriously injured and undergoing treatment.
Authorities claimed that the latest calamity to affect Iraq’s shrinking Christian minority also included flammable building materials. Officials provided contradictory casualty tolls in the chaotic wake of the fire, and security officials said they had detained wedding hall personnel as part of their inquiry.
According to authorities, the incident took place in the Nineveh region of Iraq’s Hamdaniya district, a predominantly Christian area.
There are no official statements as to what actually caused the inferno, but footage aired by Kurdish television news channel Rudaw showed pyrotechnics shooting flames up from the floor of the event that caused a chandelier to go up in flames.
Attendee Faten Youssef, 50, who was at the wedding, claimed that the fire ignited as the bride and husband started their slow dance. She claimed that the ceiling began to collapse as the flames tore through the plastic decorations.
She claimed that after battling smoke and flames and failing to kick through a stuck exit door, her family managed to escape through a kitchen. A bystander’s video captured a frantic attempt to rescue those inside, with one man using an excavator to try and break through a wall.
The UN’s mission to Iraq has offered its condolences, and the Interior Ministry, through its spokesperson, Saad Maan, said that the forensic report described a lack of safety and security measures. As a result, Saad Maan said nine workers at the venue have been arrested as part of the ongoing investigation.