One dead after fire ravages Duhok IDP camp

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An overnight fire at an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Duhok province has left one dead and injured at least two others, multiple camp residents told Rudaw on Wednesday.

Salah Jardo, a 26-year-old father of two, was killed in the blaze, and a woman was hospitalized as a result of smoke from the flames, with another woman having sustained injuries due to a "water tank falling on her neck," according to Faisal Ali, a resident of the Chamshko camp.

Chamshko camp is home to tens of thousands of Yazidis who fled their homes in Shingal district in 2014 after fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) seized control of their homeland.

Many Yazidis still remain in IDP camps despite ISIS being driven away from their lands, as their homes are in need of reconstruction. 

Chamshko camp was the scene of another blaze last year, after an electrical fire burned several tents in the camp.

Fires and floods pose a constant hazard to many displacement camps in the Kurdistan Region.

Hundreds of tents burned down in Duhok's Sharia camp last year after a devastating fire swept through the camp.

Last year, an explosion at Qadia camp in Duhok, which also houses Yazidi IDPs from the Shingal area, killed two children, including a one-month old baby, and injured two other children.