A fire broke out at Bahrka camp, housing IDPs from northern Iraq’s Nineveh province, at around 8:05pm, burning at least five of the camp’s caravans, Arif Abdullah, the camp’s supervisor, told Rudaw's Halabja Sadoun on Sunday.
The supervisor also confirmed that the fire, believed to be caused by an electrical short circuit, had resulted in the death of 17-year-old Abdullah Raiq, one of the camp’s residents originally from Mosul.
Abdullah decried the lack of services provided to the camp, saying that relevant authorities have not distributed heating oil to the residents, leading them to use devices that the electric wires cannot handle. The fire extinguishers inside the camp have been expired for years as well, he added.
Bahrka camp houses more than 960 families, numbering 4,732 individuals, over 1,300 of which are under the age of 18, according to data provided by the UN’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for May.
Fires are a common occurrence in the Kurdistan Region’s displacement camps.
In May, a fire tore through Duhok’s Khanke camp, burning at least eight tents, without any injuries afflicted upon the residents.
In 2021, an explosion at Qadia camp in Duhok killed two children, including a one-month old baby, and injured two other children.
