A fire ripped through a shopping mall in eastern Iraq and killed at least 61 people, including children, according to local officials, who blamed the
A fire ripped through a shopping mall in eastern Iraq and killed at least 61 people, including children, according to local officials, who blamed the scale of the tragedy on shoddy construction and a lack of preparedness.
Iraq’s interior ministry said the “horrific fire” began on Wednesday night and swept through a recently opened, five-story shopping center in the city of Kut. Most of the 61 victims appeared to have suffocated “due to heavy smoke,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that 14 bodies were so badly charred that they had yet to be identified.
The ministry said it had opened an investigation into the deadly episode in Kut, which is southeast of Baghdad in Wasit Province.
According to Habib al-Badri, the head of the province’s security committee, an electric malfunction sparked the fire. But he said poor building practices and an unprepared rescue service had worsened the casualty toll.
“There was a lack of emergency exits and emergency ladders and extinguishers. And unfortunately the province was not prepared for such an incident,” he said in an interview. “We hope what happened will be a lesson for the future.”
Some political leaders in Iraq moved quickly to cite the fire as another devastating consequence of pervasive corruption in the country. Many regional analysts say that is a legacy of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, when money was widely dispersed for construction projects and contracts with poor oversight. And many Iraqis complain that graft only worsened in the years since. Poorly constructed or unfinished building projects — often attributed to corruption — are common.
“This tragedy adds to the tragedies and suffering of the Iraqi people as a result of so many forms of corruption and repeated neglect,” Muqtada al-Sadr, an influential Shiite cleric and political leader in Iraq, said in a statement offering condolences.
The country’s commission of federal integrity, an independent body that deals with government accountability, highlighted what it said were shortcomings in the initial response to the fire by the interior ministry’s rescue services, saying in a statement that it would also investigate the blaze.
Iraq’s prime minister announced three days of mourning, and the governor of Wasit Province, Mohammad al-Mayahy, said he would pursue legal action against the mall’s owners.
“We will not show leniency toward those who were directly or indirectly responsible for this incident, which is surrounded by suspicious circumstances,” the governor said.
It was not immediately clear who owned the building. Video footage from the aftermath verified by The New York Times showed the building covered in ash that blanketed larger pieces of debris.
A resident of Kut described a terrifying scene after the fire, saying that he had seen charred remains including what appeared to be those of an adult embracing a child. The resident, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, shared images he took of the aftermath with The Times.
The fire at the mall is the latest in a list of deadly blazes in Iraq in recent years that have raised questions about safety protocols and preparedness.
In 2023, more than 100 people were killed when a blaze tore through a wedding hall. In 2021, two separate fires at hospitals that were treating Covid patients killed at least 174 people.
In both cases, investigators found that the buildings had failed to adhere to basic safety standards. The wedding hall, which contained highly flammable material, lacked fire exits or extinguishers. And the front door of one of the hospital wards was padlocked, fire trucks ran out of water and sprinklers malfunctioned.
COMMENTS