Whether in the case of wires tangled over crowded buildings and alleys, or the proliferation of generators exposed to heat, or the weakness of safety inspections

All this constitutes factors for recurring devastating fires in Iraq.

Fires are almost a daily sight in the country;

As the Ministry of Interior recorded 7 thousand fires between January and March, the most tragic of which was the fire that broke out last Saturday evening in Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital designated for Corona patients in the capital, Baghdad, which resulted in killing 82 people and wounding 110 others according to the government, while it was estimated The Commission for Human Rights (official linked to Parliament) that the tragedy left 130 people dead.

Baghdad, the sprawling city of about 10 million people, is affected by the largest number of these tragedies annually.

Civil Defense spokesman Brigadier General Jawdat Abdul Rahman stated that Baghdad is the most vulnerable city in Iraq.

It recorded 40% of the country's fires, and 2,800 fires were counted in it during the first three months of 2021.

Iraqi cities generally suffer from a state of urban chaos, as approximately one in 10 people live in slums, where homes are connected to water and electricity networks as agreed.

It also builds new shopping centers without urban planning.

Mess

The Director of Civil Defense, Major General Kazem Bohan, said, "All the buildings are without specifications, and there are thousands of them without approvals."

As a result of this mess, buildings are not subject to safety requirements, and the risk of fire increases.

A shop owner - who refused to reveal his name - in the Shorja market in central Baghdad said that in 2014, the Civil Defense asked all shops and commercial centers to acquire a "fire extinguisher," adding, "Some bought and installed them in their stores, and others ignored that."

And inside buildings, a mixture of inexpensive flammable building materials and poorly conducting electrical wires can easily turn a spark into hell in a matter of minutes.

Electrical fault

Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi said - in an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers after the Ibn Al-Khatib hospital fire - "Nobody should say that the cause of the accident was an electrical short circuit ... this is defective ... neglecting such matters is not just an error but a crime."

For many years, the country has only been able to provide a few hours of electrical energy per day, which has made people depend on private generators that are usually placed next to the fuel tanks outside under thin iron panels that barely protect them from the scorching sunlight and heat that can reach 55 degrees Celsius. in summer.

So hardly a day goes by in Iraq without local media reporting a fire in a store, gas station, or someone's home.

Prime Minister @MAKadhimi: The members of the investigation team into the Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital accident are working around the clock with personal follow-up from me, and we are awaiting their report on the date we set, and we will fully approve its results.

pic.twitter.com/m81LO5TRPr

- Media Office of the Prime Minister 🇮🇶 (@IraqiPMO) April 27, 2021

Lack of resources

On the day of the bloody fire in Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital, a fire broke out in a shopping center in Kirkuk (north), and the next day a fire broke out in Tikrit (north), and another in a restaurant in the city of Erbil in the Kurdistan region turned it to ashes.

Two days ago, the elevator system in a hospital in Hilla (south) was exposed to a short circuit, but it was brought under control.

In central and northern Iraq - where the militants still have a foothold - thousands of hectares of agricultural land are burned every year.

The fires threaten the Iraqi agricultural sector, which is already in dire straits.

To make matters worse, there is a lack of resources.

Those in charge of fighting fires in Iraq have to do so with limited resources, as Major General Bohan emphasized the lack of fire nozzles and the outdated fleet of fire engines, as the most recent of them is 10 years old.

Bohan said that the civil defense is disrupted in the absence of helicopters to extinguish the fires, despite the exposure of wheat and barley cultivation areas to frequent fires annually that devour large areas in various regions of Iraq.

The official believes that this is due to the economic conditions that his country suffers from, which affected the provision of civil defense requirements.

Bohan says that in 18 years he recorded "more than 420 deaths" among civil defense personnel.