STORY: Steven Nabil is cradling a picture of his fiancé, one of over a hundred people killed in the huge fire that swept through a wedding hall in Iraq last month.
He was working as a DJ there. He stepped outside for a break when the disaster happened.
On Sunday, Iraq’s interior minister announced that investigators are blaming the blaze in Hamdaniya on gross negligence and a lack of safety measures.
…the latest in a series of similar incidents in recent years, all said to be caused by negligence, lax regulation, and corruption.
This fire was accidental and unintentional, according to the government report, which said 900 people had been allowed into a building designed to hold only 400.
Flammable decorations also made the fire spread more quickly, said the interior minister, and people became trapped by exit doors that were too small. Previously officials said they had arrested 14 people.
Nabil remembers his fiancé’s final moments. He’s saying she called him on his cell phone and said “I’m going to die. Take care of yourself. I love you so much.”
When he raced back to the hall he found horrific scenes of people dying. He says his fiancé was found later, dead, sitting on a chair with her phone still in her hand.