Two dead in Erbil hotel fire
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Two people died on Friday morning in a fire that broke out after a gas tank exploded in one of Erbil’s oldest hotels, the owner told Rudaw.
The fire started when a member of the hotel staff began cooking.
“We make breakfast for the hotel. When he lit up the gas, fire broke out,” Nawzad Sabir, owner of Fareed Hotel on Erbil’s 30-metre street, told Rudaw.
The cook and another person tried to put it out. Sabir said video footage showed them trying to push the gas tank, but the flames blazed out of control and the hotel caught fire.
Two women guests who were asleep in their room died. One was a 23-year-old from Baghdad and the other was a friend of hers, believed to be Syrian, a police official told Rudaw on the condition of anonymity.
The woman from Baghdad was in Erbil looking for work, according to Sabir.
The incident is under investigation.
Fires are a perennial concern in the Kurdistan Region where safety precautions are often lacking.
In June, a shopping centre in Erbil went up in flames on 30 meter road which damaged scores of businesses. Shop owners said it was the third time the mall had caught fire. In the same month, a furniture store caught fire on 60 metre road. At the beginning of July, five people were injured when a chips factory caught fire in Erbil’s Khabat sub-district. A storage shed had caught fire in Daratu neighbourhood earlier that week.
The fire started when a member of the hotel staff began cooking.
“We make breakfast for the hotel. When he lit up the gas, fire broke out,” Nawzad Sabir, owner of Fareed Hotel on Erbil’s 30-metre street, told Rudaw.
The cook and another person tried to put it out. Sabir said video footage showed them trying to push the gas tank, but the flames blazed out of control and the hotel caught fire.
Two women guests who were asleep in their room died. One was a 23-year-old from Baghdad and the other was a friend of hers, believed to be Syrian, a police official told Rudaw on the condition of anonymity.
The woman from Baghdad was in Erbil looking for work, according to Sabir.
The incident is under investigation.
Fires are a perennial concern in the Kurdistan Region where safety precautions are often lacking.
In June, a shopping centre in Erbil went up in flames on 30 meter road which damaged scores of businesses. Shop owners said it was the third time the mall had caught fire. In the same month, a furniture store caught fire on 60 metre road. At the beginning of July, five people were injured when a chips factory caught fire in Erbil’s Khabat sub-district. A storage shed had caught fire in Daratu neighbourhood earlier that week.