A fire at a wedding in Iraq killed 107 people last week. At least 150 guests suffered burns, smoke inhalation, or crush injuries in the stampede, as they panicked and rushed to exit the venue.
As Iraq mourned for the deaths, a video from the venue near the village of Qaraqosh, or Al-Hamdaniya, captures the horrifying details of the fire and shows the moments before all hell broke loose.
In the video, as the couple took to the floor for their first dance, sparks were seen in the mammoth chandelier on the ceiling, adorned with flammable wedding decorations. The sparks quickly ignited a fire that quickly spread and sent guests fleeing in panic. After most people had vacated the main hall, massive beams, completely ablaze, crashed to the ground.
Fire officials believe that indoor fireworks ignited ceiling decorations, causing a rapid fire to spread through the reception hall, which was constructed with highly flammable materials.
The bride and groom survived the fire, but their "minor burns" paled in comparison to the shattering grief of losing so many loved ones, said Jamil al-Jamil, a close friend of the couple, as quoted by news agency AFP.
"The bride lost her whole family -- three brothers, all of her uncles and her young cousins. The groom lost his mother," Jamil said.
Qaraqosh, a once-flourishing Christian town in the Nineveh Plains of Iraq, still bears the scars of the Islamic State group's rule from 2014 to 2017. Once home to over 50,000 Christians, Qaraqosh is now home to just half of its original population.
Iraq is still grappling with the legacy of decades of dictatorship, war, and unrest, and is plagued by corruption, mismanagement, and dilapidated infrastructure. As a result, safety standards are often overlooked, leading to tragedies such as the 2021 hospital fires, which claimed the lives of dozens of innocent people.
