TRAGIC FIRE AT IRAQ HYPERMARKET CLAIMS 61 LIVES

At least 61 people have been killed and several more are missing in a huge fire at a hypermarket in Kut city in eastern Iraq, according to Iraq’s Interior Ministry.

The ministry said on Thursday that 14 charred bodies had been found in the mall fire in the Wasit governorate and that civil defence teams had rescued 45 people from inside the building.

Earlier, a city health official told Reuters news agency: “We have compiled a list of 59 victims whose identities have been confirmed, but one body was so badly burned that it has been extremely difficult to identify.”

Videos on social media showed flames engulfing a five-storey building in Kut overnight, where firefighters were trying to contain the fire.

The mall, which had opened only a week earlier, also contained a restaurant and supermarket. The state-run Iraqi News Agency reported that people remained missing.

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.

The Wasit province governor, Mohammed al-Mayahi, said the fire broke out in both the hypermarket and a restaurant. Families were having dinner and shopping, he said. Firefighters rescued a number of people and put out the fire, the governor added.

Three days of mourning have been announced and an investigation has been launched. Investigation results will be released within 48 hours.

“A tragedy and a calamity have befallen us,” the governor said.

“We have filed lawsuits against the owner of the building and the mall,” INA quoted the governor as saying.

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Poor building standards have often contributed to tragic fires in Iraq. In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in Nasiriyah that killed more than 60 people was determined to have been fuelled by highly flammable, low-cost type of “sandwich panel” cladding that is illegal in Iraq.

In 2023, more than 100 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.