Home furniture retailer catches fire in Erbil

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A furniture store caught on fire in Erbil on Wednesday, destroying a large number of their supplies in storage.

The retailer, located on 60 metre road near the city centre was in flames early Wednesday. No casualties were reported in the incident. 
 
The cause of the fire is unknown, however, according to the employees of the business, one of the air conditioning units caught on fire. Witnesses reported that the blaze went on for an hour, at which point the fire was brought under control.

Erbil Mayor Nabaz Abdulhamid and Director of Civil Defense Sarkawt Karash visited the scene. 

At an awareness campaign launched late Tuesday, Abdulhamid revealed that the Erbil Civil Defense finalized a number of safety requirements. Also, they inspected several apartments and noticed that a number of the tenants were not living up to the conditions set.

In addition, Abdulhamid asked that all guidelines set by the civil defense be followed within its framework, as well as that in the event of an emergency, people volunteer to help the firefighting team. They noticed, however, that the people were obstructing the firefighters today. 

Karash told reporters on Wednesday that he was working to protect the homes around the furniture retailer from the beginning because people called with urgency asking that he come to the location of the fire. 

Two factors contributed to the delay of the fire being brought under control, one of which was traffic congestion in Eskan and the other was the failure to shut down the electrical power on time, according to Karash.