By SAMY MAGDY
CAIRO (AP) — A fireplace ripped by means 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 not less than 15 kids.
Several trapped congregants jumped from higher flooring of the Martyr Abu Sefein church to attempt to escape the extraordinary flames, witnesses stated. “Suffocation, suffocation, all of them dead,” stated 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 identified. An preliminary investigation pointed to {an electrical} short-circuit, based on a police assertion.
Weeping households waited exterior for phrase about kinfolk who had been 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 wood tables and chairs. Firefighters had been seen placing out the blaze whereas others carried victims to ambulances.
Witnesses stated there have been many kids contained in the four-story constructing, which had two day care amenities.
“There are children, we didn’t know how to get to them,” stated Abu Bishoy. “And we don’t know whose son this is, or whose daughter that is. Is this possible?”
A complete of 15 kids had been killed within the fireplace, based on Copts United, a information web site specializing in Christian information.
An inventory of victims obtained by The Associated Press stated 20 our bodies, together with 10 kids, had been taken to the Imbaba public hospital. Three had been siblings, twins aged 5 and a 3-year-old, it stated. 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.
Mousa Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Church, instructed the AP that 5-year-old triplets, their mom, grandmother and an aunt had been amongst these killed.
Witness Emad Hanna stated a church employee managed to get some kids out of the church day care amenities.
“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 stated.
“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 lately.
The church is situated in a slim road in one of the 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 kinfolk criticized what they stated 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 exterior 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 autos had been dispatched to the scene to place out the flames whereas ambulances ferried casualties to close by hospitals, officers stated.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi spoke by cellphone with Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to supply his condolences, the president’s workplace stated. Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam, additionally provided 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, stated in an announcement that two of the injured had been discharged from a hospital whereas the others had been nonetheless being handled.
The Interior Ministry stated 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 ground.
The ministry, which oversees police and firefighters, blamed {an electrical} short-circuit for the fireplace, which produced large quantities of smoke. Meanwhile, the nation’s chief prosecutor, Hamada el-Sawy, ordered an investigation and a crew of prosecutors had been dispatched to the church. He stated most victims died of smoke inhalation.
By Sunday afternoon, emergency providers stated they managed to place out the blaze and the prime minister and different senior authorities officers arrived to examine the location. Premier Mustafa Madbouly stated 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. Hundreds of mourners gathered on the church buildings for the funerals, earlier than taking the our bodies for burial in close by cemeteries.
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 lately in Egypt, the place security requirements and fireplace rules are poorly enforced. In March final yr, a fireplace at a garment manufacturing unit close to Cairo killed not less than 20 folks and injured 24.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”