Fodder warehouses in Erbil catch fire; no casualties

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A fire broke out in four fodder warehouses in Erbil’s Dibaga subdistrict, causing material damages but no casualties, a local official said on Monday.

Karwan Mirawdali, a spokesperson for Erbil civil defense told Rudaw that four animal products and fodder warehouses caught fire at around 2:20 am near Minara village in Dibaga subdistrict, resulting in material damages.

Five civil defense branches battled the flames for over six hours. One warehouse was extinguished, another was partially burned, while the remaining two completely burned down.

Citing the owner of the warehouses, civil defense teams said there was no electricity inside the buildings, therefore investigations will continue to determine the reason behind the fire.

It is the second massive fire incident within a week in the Kurdistan Region. On Wednesday, one person was killed and three others injured after a bitumen tanker caught fire in an asphalt factory in Sulaimani’s Arbat town.

Fires are a perennial concern in the Kurdistan Region where proper safety standards are often lacking.

There have been over 1,720 fire incidents across Erbil since the beginning of the year, killing at least 15 people, according to data from the province’s civil defense. 

A total of 7,546 fire incidents were recorded across the Kurdistan Region in 2022, police figures say.