ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Three children, two girls and one boy, lost their lives after a fire broke out in their house in southeast Kirkuk on Saturday. “The fire broke out due to an electrical fault at around noon in Panja Ali neighborhood,” Amr Nuri, spokesperson for Kirkuk police, told Rudaw English, “none of the children were burned, but rather died due to suffocation.” The parents are reportedly both employees of the Kirkuk health directorate and were on duty when the incident occurred. The victims are a three-year-old girl, her 13-year-old sister, and their eight-year-old brother. The bodies have been transferred to a forensics laboratory for examinations. “Investigations into the incident will definitely continue and we will await the call of the specialized judge,” Nuri added. Fires are a perennial concern in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, where safety standards are subpar. Electrical faults and lack of basic safety measures are a major part of the problem. Six bodies were recovered from a house fire that broke out in Baghdad in April. Data from the Iraqi civil defense directorate indicates that there were over 21,000 fire incidents in Iraq in 2023, down from 32,000 in 2022.
