A fire at a shopping center in eastern Iraq kills more than 60 people

KUT, Iraq (AP) — A fire engulfed a newly opened shopping center in eastern Iraq, killing more than 60 people, including children, Iraqi officials said Thursday.

Civil defense teams rescued more than 45 people who became trapped when the fire broke out late Wednesday in the city of Kut in Wasit province, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Others are still missing, according to the state-run Iraqi News Agency.

Photographs and videos on local media showed the five-story Corniche Hypermarket Mall engulfed in flames only a week after it had opened. While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, officials and residents alleged that a lack of fire safety measures in the building contributed to the scale of the tragedy.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that 61 people died in the shopping center fire, most of them from suffocation. Among the dead were 14 charred bodies that remain unidentified, it said.

The fire was deeply painful for the community, said 60-year-old Kut resident Abdul Redha Thahab,

“My friend and neighbor’s family, who lived right next to my house — a family of six, the husband, his wife, their two daughters, and two young children — all perished in the fire,” he said.

Provincial Gov. Mohammed al-Miyahi declared three days of mourning. He said legal cases were filed against the building owner and shopping center owner, but did not specify what the charges were.

“We assure the families of the innocent victims that we will not be lenient with those who were directly or indirectly responsible for this incident,” al-Mayyeh said.

In a phone interview with The Associated Press, al-Miyahi called the fire “a heartbreaking tragedy for the people of Wasit” and alleged that the building owner had not implemented the necessary fire safety measures when he converted it into a shopping center.

He said that no government official has resigned or been dismissed as a result of the fire, and that they are currently awaiting the results of the investigation. The results of the preliminary investigation will be released within 48 hours, he said.

The building owner could not immediately be reached for comment.

Poor building standards have often contributed to tragic fires in Iraq. In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah that killed between 60 to 92 people was determined to have been fueled by highly flammable, low-cost type of "sandwich panel" cladding that is illegal in Iraq.

In 2023, more than 100 people 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.

Thahab, the Kut resident, said the building lacked fire safety measures, including emergency exit stairways. Residents of the neighborhood had joined firefighters in battling the blaze because there were not enough fire trucks to quickly control it, he said.

Some of the victims came from farther afield. In the southern city of Najaf, Imad al-Quraishi walked in the funeral procession of a relative who died in the blaze. Like others, he blamed poor safety standards.

“No emergency exits, no fire extinguisher, no care, nothing,” he said, adding that if the authorities in the area “have any honor, they will submit their resignation today.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani visited the site of the fire Thursday. He did not speak publicly at the site, but said in a statement that he had directed the interior minister to go to investigate and take measures to prevent a recurrence.

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Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad. Associated Press journalist Ali Sadiq in Najaf contributed to this report.