Al-Ahd Iraqi TV reported that 15 people were injured in a fire that broke out in an oil refinery on the Erbil-Kwer road in northern Iraq early on Thursday morning, describing the situation as “out of control.”
According to Al-Sharq News, the fire expanded as flames spread to additional oil tanks. It noted that 12 oil tanks exploded due to the fire, emphasizing that the situation was “out of control despite the presence of 35 civil defense teams.”
In 2023, Iraq experienced a significant number of fire incidents with a total of 21,024 fires recorded across the country, excluding the Kurdistan Region. This was a decrease from the previous year’s total of 32,477 incidents. The majority of these fires occurred in Baghdad, with electrical faults being the primary cause, followed by incidents involving children and intentional fires.
These statistics reflect a broader issue of fire safety and emergency response in Iraq, which includes both accidental fires and those resulting from conflicts or other security-related situations. The Iraqi Civil Defense Directorate has been actively working on spreading preventive and educational awareness among the citizens to help reduce the number of fire accidents.
