ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq's civil defense announced on Wednesday that at least four people lost their lives after a bakery in Baghdad’s Sadr city went up in flames the night before.
The civil defense said that their teams had retrieved the bodies of an elderly Iraqi men, and three Bangladeshi workers from the fire. The bodies have been transferred to a forensics lab to carry out the legal procedure, according to the statement.
The victims reportedly lost their lives after suffocating from the blaze’s toxic gas emissions.
The civil defense urged a probe into the incident, as the reason for the fire is yet to be determined.
Iraq is known for frequent fires during the summer, whether in government buildings or private facilities, but a recent string of fires at this time of the year raises concerns about the deterioration of the preventive measures that the government pledged to tackle over two years ago, after a series of blazes destroyed major hospitals, leaving dozens dead and injured.
Iraq’s civil defense directorate on Sunday announced that they had recorded more than 19,000 fire incidents across all Iraqi provinces, excluding the Kurdistan Region, since the start of the year. Over 32,000 fires were reported for 2022.
