CAIRO — A fireplace ripped by way of a packed Coptic Orthodox church throughout morning providers in Egypt’s capital on Sunday, shortly filling it with thick black smoke and killing 41 worshippers, together with at the least 10 youngsters.
Several trapped congregants jumped from higher flooring of the Martyr Abu Sefein church to attempt to escape the extreme flames, witnesses mentioned. “Suffocation, suffocation, all of them dead,” mentioned a distraught witness, who solely gave a partial identify, Abu Bishoy.
Sixteen folks had been injured, together with 4 policemen concerned within the rescue effort.
The reason behind the blaze on the church within the working-class neighborhood of Imbaba was not instantly recognized. An preliminary investigation pointed to {an electrical} short-circuit, in accordance with a police assertion.
Weeping households waited outdoors for phrase about family members nonetheless contained in the church and at close by hospitals the place the victims had been taken. Footage from the scene circulated on-line confirmed burned furnishings, together with picket tables and chairs. Firefighters had been seen placing out the blaze whereas others carried victims to ambulances.
Witnesses mentioned there have been many youngsters contained in the four-story constructing, which had two day care services, when the fireplace broke out.
“There are children, we didn’t know how to get to them,” mentioned Abu Bishoy. “And we don’t know whose son this is, or whose daughter that is. Is this possible?”
A hospital doc obtained by The Associated Press mentioned 20 our bodies, together with 10 youngsters, had been taken to the Imbaba public hospital. Three had been siblings, twins aged 5 and a 3-year-old, it mentioned. The church bishop, Abdul Masih Bakhit, was additionally among the many lifeless on the hospital morgue.
Twenty-one our bodies had been taken to different hospitals. It was not instantly recognized if youngsters had been amongst them.
Mousa Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Church, informed the AP that 5-year-old triplets, their mom, grandmother and an aunt had been amongst these killed.
Witness Emad Hanna mentioned a church employee managed to get some youngsters out of the church day care services.
“We went upstairs and found people dead. And we started to see from outside that the smoke was getting bigger, and people want to jump from the upper floor,” Hanna mentioned.
“We found the children,” some lifeless, some alive, he added.
The nation’s well being minister blamed the smoke and a stampede as folks tried to flee the fireplace for inflicting the fatalities. It was one of many worst fireplace tragedies in Egypt in recent times.
The church is positioned in a slender road in probably the most densely populated neighborhoods in Cairo. Sunday is the primary working day of the week, and visitors jams clog the streets in Imbama and surrounding areas within the morning.
Some family members criticized what they mentioned had been delays within the arrival of ambulances and firefighters. “They came after people died. … They came after the church burned down,” shouted one lady standing outdoors the smoldering church.
Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghafar countered that the primary ambulance arrived on the website two minutes after the fireplace was reported.
Fifteen firefighting automobiles had been dispatched to the scene to place out the flames whereas ambulances ferried casualties to close by hospitals, officers mentioned.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi spoke by cellphone with Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to supply his condolences, the president’s workplace mentioned. Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam, additionally supplied condolences to the pinnacle of the Coptic church.
“I am closely following the developments of the tragic accident,” el-Sissi wrote on Facebook. “I directed all concerned state agencies and institutions to take all necessary measures, and immediately to deal with this accident and its effects.”
Abdel-Ghafar, the well being minister, mentioned in a press release that two of the injured had been discharged from a hospital whereas the others had been nonetheless being handled.
The Interior Ministry mentioned it obtained a report of the fireplace at 9 a.m. native time, and first responders discovered that the blaze had damaged out in an air conditioner on the constructing’s second flooring.
The ministry, which oversees police and firefighters, blamed {an electrical} short-circuit for the fireplace, which produced big quantities of smoke. Meanwhile, the nation’s chief prosecutor, Hamada el-Sawy, ordered an investigation and a workforce of prosecutors had been dispatched to the church. He mentioned most victims died of smoke inhalation.
By Sunday afternoon, emergency providers mentioned they managed to place out the blaze and the prime minister and different senior authorities officers arrived to examine the positioning. Premier Mustafa Madbouly mentioned surviving victims and households of the lifeless would obtain funds as compensation and that the federal government would rebuild the church.
By late afternoon, caskets carrying the lifeless had been transferred in ambulances for pre-burial prayers at two church buildings within the close by Waraq neighborhood, as weeping ladies lined their path.
Egypt’s Christians account for some 10% of the nation’s greater than 103 million folks and have lengthy complained of discrimination by the nation’s Muslim majority.
Sunday’s blaze was one of many worst fireplace tragedies in recent times in Egypt, the place security requirements and fireplace rules are poorly enforced. In March final yr, a fireplace at a garment manufacturing facility close to Cairo killed at the least 20 folks and injured 24.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”