Iraq fire kills 28, half foreigners
Source: Agencies |
July 17, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A FIRE in a five-story hotel in northern Iraq killed 28 people, half of them foreigners, in a harrowing blaze that forced several victims to jump to their deaths to escape a building without fire escapes, officials and witnesses said yesterday.
The fire in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah began late Thursday night in the Soma Hotel and was sparked by an electrical short, said chief of police Brigadier General Najim-al-Din Qadir. Four women and four children were among the dead, he added.
At least 14 of the victims were foreigners, Qadir said. Work and investment opportunities have led many foreigners to flock to Iraq's Kurdish oil-rich north, a region where the thriving economy contrasts sharply with other parts of a country ravaged by sectarian violence unleashed by the 2003 United States-led invasion.
Witnesses described a terrifying scene of panicked guests frantically trying to escape the burning building that officials said lacked fire escapes, some flinging themselves from windows in desperation.
Marwan Assad, a Kurd with dual Iraqi-British citizenship, said he came to the hotel to visit two friends but never made it to their room.
He said the fire broke out when he was on the third floor and smoke quickly enveloped the hallway, forcing him to stumble blindly in search of a way out.
"I saw an open door and a man lying dead in the room because he suffocated from the smoke," Assad said at Sulaimaniyah Emergency Hospital, where he was about to undergo surgery for breaking his legs.
"I entered the room and threw myself from the window."
Kameran Ahmed, who owns an electrical supply shop next to the hotel, said other people were also frantically trying to escape the blaze.
"I saw three people jump from their floor to escape the fire, but they were killed when they hit the ground," said Ahmed.
Firefighters could be seen working throughout the night to put out the fire in what was once a gleaming, modern building of mirrored-glass windows. In the morning, smoke darkened much of the building's facade, and many of the windows were smashed and broken.
Sulaimaniyah fire department head Brigadier Yadgar Mohammed Mustafa said the fire raged for almost five hours through the night.
He said most of the victims succumbed to smoke inhalation, and the lack of fire escapes contributed to the high death toll.
The police chief said that using the passports of the deceased, authorities determined that the dead included people from Cambodia, Bangladesh, Canada, Australia, Ecuador, South Africa, Britain, Lebanon, Venezuela, Sri Lanka and one who was believed to be a foreigner but did not have identification.
He said 28 people had been killed in the blaze, including 14 foreigners.
The police chief said authorities determined that one person in the city morgue who was previously believed to be a fire victim died in an unrelated incident.
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