ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A firefighter was killed and several locals suffered breathing problems when a sulfur plant south of Mosul, northern Iraq caught fire on Wednesday afternoon, according to local officials.
Saydo Chato, head of Nineveh Provincial Council, told Rudaw they had to request help from the civil defense units of Mosul, Baghdad, Erbil, and Saladin to extinguish the blaze.
Khalid al-Jar, mayor of Shura district, told Iraq’s al-Sharqiya TV that 10 people “suffered breathing problems due to the emission of gases”.
One firefighter was killed and three others injured tackling the blaze, the Iraqi health ministry told state TV. According to Al Iraqiya, the fire has now been brought under control.
The plant, owned by the Mishraq Sulphur State Company, is located in Hamam al-Alil, just south of the Iraqi city of Mosul.
Wildfires have become a common problem in rural areas across Iraq in recent weeks, many of them started deliberately as part of land disputes or by suspected remnants of the Islamic State group (ISIS).
Chato earlier said the fire had not reached the stockpile of sulfur at the plant. Had it caught fire, its fumes could have reached Erbil, he warned.
“It is unclear what caused the fire so far but of course there is a hand behind it aiming to harm the situation in Mosul. This is a sort of terror.”
Firefighters did not have masks to protect themselves from the toxic fumes, he added.
Firefighting teams from Erbil and Duhok were deployed to extinguish the fire, according to Sirwan Rojbayani, deputy governor of Nineveh.
A state of emergency was declared in Nineveh until the situation is under control, he told Rudaw.
ISIS set fire to the Mishraq sulfur plant in October 2016 when the group was still in control of parts of Nineveh province. The toxic fumes produced by the fire killed at least two civilians and caused breathing problems for more than a thousand people.
Last updated at 12:00am
