Iraq wedding fire caused by 'gross negligence', officials sacked

BAGHDAD - A fire that swept through a crowded wedding hall in a northern Iraqi town

killing more than 100 people

was blamed on “gross negligence” and lack of safety measures.

This is according to the results of a government investigation into the disaster.

The investigation results were announced at a news conference on Sunday by interior minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari.

He said the owner of the hall and three other staff members had allowed 900 people into the venue when it was designed for a maximum of 400.

“The fire was accidental and unintentional and occurred due to gross negligence,” the investigation findings said.

“Using flammable decoration helped the fire to spread quickly and transformed the hall to a fireball,” Mr Shammari said.

The blaze trapped people inside the wedding hall and rescue teams struggled to reach them because exit doors were few and small, he said.

At least 150 people were injured in the fire, which was in the Christian town of Hamdaniya – also known as Qaraqosh.

The interior minister put the death toll at 107 and said the investigation panel had proposed that the government provide financial support to families of the dead and injured.

Public anger has flared over the high death toll.

Shammari said those fired include: the mayor of Qaraqosh; the municipal director; the tourism and recreation division head; an electricity official; and the chief of firefighting and security in Nineveh province’s Civil Defence corps.

The Civil Defence chief will face a disciplinary committee, Shammari added.

In addition to negligence the officials were fired for “failures in the exercise of their duties,” he said.

“The mayor was negligent: the hall was built illegally on the land, but the mayor authorised its going into service, without the approval of other public agencies,” the minister said.

Civil Defence had carried out an inspection of the site earlier this year and the owner was ordered to remove the ceiling by October because of its highly-flammable materials, he added.

The “main cause” of the fire was four fireworks that shot showers of sparks four metres high, Faleh said, adding that these ignited the prefabricated panels in the ceiling and also the hall’s decorations.

Shammari said the hall’s owner, thinking that a short circuit had started the fire, cut the electricity and plunged the room into darkness, provoking “chaos, panic and a stampede”.

Of the 14 people arrested earlier by security forces, four, including the venue’s owner, were directly responsible for installing the fireworks, Faleh said.

Both bride and groom survived the fire.

Safety standards are often poorly observed in Iraq, a country still recovering from decades of dictatorship, war and unrest that remains plagued by corruption, mismanagement and often dilapidated infrastructure.

Public discontent flared into a nationwide protest movement that began in October, 2019. Nearly 500 demonstrators gathered Sunday in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square to commemorate the anniversary, which police – met with stones hurled by the protesters – dispersed with sound grenades, an AFP photographer said.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani visited victims of the blaze at two local hospitals on Thursday last week and pledged to hold those responsible to account. REUTERS