By The Tablet Staff
PROSPECT HEIGHTS, NY — A fire that seemed to be set off by fireworks at a Christian wedding in Iraq, just outside the city of Mosul, killed at least 100 people and injured at least 150 more Sept. 27.
Initial news reports did not indicate the cause of the blaze that erupted and spread rapidly while many guests were trapped inside the venue.
Father Rudi Saffar Khoury, a priest at the wedding, told The Associated Press, “It was a disaster in every sense of the word.”
Iraq Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered an investigation into the fire that took place in the town of Qaraqosh, a Christian town in the Nineveh Plains that has survived Islamic State occupation. He also asked the country’s interior and health officials to provide relief, according to an online statement.
The prime minister said building inspections would be carried out and safety procedures would be scrutinized. He also declared three days of national mourning.
Reports from survivors said hundreds of people were at the wedding celebration, which was held after the church service, and the fire began about an hour into the event when flares ignited the ceiling as the bride and groom danced.
Weddings in this region and in other areas of the Middle East are often extravagant, involving hundreds of guests with receptions taking place in elaborate halls with music and entertainment and often pyrotechnics.
Local authorities said the building’s flammable materials also contributed to this disaster — the latest tragedy for Iraq’s shrinking Christian minority.
News reports put the number of Christians in Iraq today at 150,000, compared to 1.5 million in 2003. Iraq’s total population is more than 40 million.
Qaraqosh was the largest Christian town in Iraq. About half of its residents have returned since it was liberated but many of the destroyed homes have yet to be rebuilt and buildings lack basic services. In the past few decades, Christians in this region have been violently targeted by extremists, initially from al-Qaida and then the Islamic State militant group.