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A group of stores containing second hand household appliances and vehicle parts, located behind Family Mall in Erbil, caught fire on Thursday morning.
Breaking out at 8:00am, the fire lasted for four hours, burning down six stores before it was controlled, head of the Erbil Civil Defense teams Brigadier General Shwan Qadir told Rudaw.
The stores "are located nearby a factory where a large amount of kerosene is stockpiled," Qadir said. "Thankfully, we controlled and stopped the fire from travelling to the kerosene factory."
"I happened to come here this morning at 8am. I noticed small, thick plumes of smokes billowing from one of the stores. The fire slowly became larger and larger, travelling to neighboring stores," a taxi driver eyewitness told Rudaw. "I rushed to help all the people trying to pull out their goods from the stores."There are no reports of casualties as of yet, a Civil Defense team member told Rudaw.
"One civil defense member fainted, and he was rushed to the hospital," he added.
The absence of a phone number to contact the city's emergency services delayed the arrival of fire marshals to the scene, Qadir explained to Rudaw.
"It seems that guards [of the stores] did not have the emergency phone numbers of firefighting teams," Qadir said.
"They had to come by taxi to inform us of the fire...therefore we were late."
Another eyewitness living near the stores said he believed "the fire originated from the short circuiting of electricity from a utility pole."
"They had to come by taxi to inform us of the fire...therefore we were late."
Another eyewitness living near the stores said he believed "the fire originated from the short circuiting of electricity from a utility pole."
Ace Hardware, an American hardware store located in a western residential area close to Sami Abdul-Rahman Park and Justice Tower on Mosul Road, was destroyed in a blaze last month.
Photos taken by Mohammed Shwani in Erbil on August 29, 2019.
Updated at 3:37pm
Erbil fire at a store 1
Erbil fire at a store 2
Erbil fire at a store 3
Erbil fire at a store 4
Erbil fire at a store 5
Erbil fire at a store 6
Erbil fire at a store 7
Erbil fire at a store 8
Erbil fire at a store 9
Fire engulfs second hand household appliance stores in Erbil
Fire engulfs second hand household appliance stores in Erbil
Fire engulfs second hand household appliance stores in Erbil
Fire engulfs second hand household appliance stores in Erbil
Fire engulfs second hand household appliance stores in Erbil
Fire engulfs second hand household appliance stores in Erbil
Fire engulfs second hand household appliance stores in Erbil
Fire engulfs second hand household appliance stores in Erbil