A preliminary report prepared by the city’s hospital said people from 12 nations, including Iraq, Australia, Britain, Canada and several Asian and South American countries, were killed in Thursday night’s blaze in Sulaimaniyah, which raged for seven hours before being brought under control. “The regional government will contact the embassies of the foreigners who were killed,” said Rikot Hama Rasheed, the director of Sulaimaniyah hospital.
He said 22 survivors were receiving treatment at the hospital.
Witnesses told AFP at least three of those who died did so after leaping from the hotel’s windows in a desperate bid to save themselves.
Mirwan Saeed, 30, who was visiting friends in the hotel, broke both his legs after making his way to the roof and jumping towards a nearby lower building to save his life.
“We were in the hotel when the smoke started coming in,” he said from his hospital bed. “I had no choice but to jump.”
Colonel Araz Bakr, chief of Sulaimaniyah rescue services, confirmed the death toll and said 42 people were injured, including seven firefighters.
He said most of those who died were suffocated by smoke.
A city council official said an electrical fault caused the blaze, which also damaged several adjacent buildings.
Sulaimaniyah, 270 kilometres north of Baghdad is the capital of one of three northern provinces that make up Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
The area is popular with tourists and business has flourished in recent years as, unlike much of Iraq, it is peaceful.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 17th, 2010.
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