Funerals have been held in two Cairo churches for 41 victims of a fire that ripped through a Coptic Christian church during mass, forcing worshippers to jump out of windows.
Key points:
- Authorities have announced “urgent aid” of about $3,675 for the families of the victims
- The church bishop was among those killed in the fire
- Father Farid Fahmy, of another nearby church, says the fire was sparked by a short circuit
The blaze, which has been blamed on an electrical fault, hit the busy Abu Sefein church in densely populated Imbaba, a working-class district west of the Nile River, part of the Giza governorate in greater Cairo.
Hundreds gathered on Sunday evening (local time) to pay their respects in and around the two Giza churches where clergymen prayed for the victims.
Pallbearers pushed through crowds of weeping mourners who reached for the coffins.
The Egyptian Coptic Church and the health ministry reported 41 people had died and 14 were injured in the blaze before emergency services brought it under control.
Witnesses to the Sunday morning fire described people rushing into the multistorey house of worship to save those trapped, but rescuers were soon overwhelmed by heat and deadly smoke.
“Suffocation, all of them dead,” said a distraught witness, who only gave a partial name, Abu Bishoy.
“Everyone was carrying kids out of the building,” said Ahmed Reda Baioumy, who lives next to the church.
“But the fire was getting bigger and you could only go in once or you would asphyxiate.”
The country’s health minister blamed the smoke and a stampede as people attempted to flee the fire for causing the fatalities.
What do we know about the victims?
A total of 15 children were killed in the fire, according to Copts United, a news website focusing on Christian news.
A list of victims obtained by The Associated Press said 20 bodies, including 10 children, were taken to the Imbaba public hospital.
Three were siblings — twins aged five and a three-year-old.
Mousa Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Church, told AP that five-year-old triplets, their mother, grandmother and an aunt were also among those killed.
A priest at the church, Abdel-Messih Bekhit, was also among the dead at the hospital morgue.
Twenty-one bodies were taken to other hospitals.
Maher Murad said he left his sister at the church after prayers.
“As soon as I got away from the church by only 10 metres, I heard the sound of screaming and saw thick smoke,” he said.
“After the firefighters doused the fire, I recognised my sister’s body. The bodies were all charred, and many of them are children who were in a nursery room in the church.”
Witness Emad Hanna said a church worker managed to get some children out of the church’s two daycare facilities.
“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,” he said.
Giza’s governor ordered “urgent aid of 50,000 pounds ($3,675) for the families of the deceased and 10,000 pounds ($735) for the injured”.
Copts are the largest Christian community in the Middle East, making up at least 10 million of Egypt’s 103 million Muslim-majority population.
Power overload caused fire
Sunday morning’s blaze was one of the worst fire tragedies in Egypt in recent years.
Due to Egypt’s dilapidated and poorly maintained infrastructure, accidental fires are not uncommon in the sprawling megalopolis of Cairo, where millions live in informal settlements.
Father Farid Fahmy, of another nearby church, told the AFP news wire a short circuit caused the fire.
“The power was out and they were using a generator,” he said.
“When the power came back, it caused an overload.”
The interior ministry said “forensic evidence revealed that the blaze broke out in an air-conditioning unit on the second floor of the church building”, which also housed social services.
Witness Sayed Tawfik said “some threw themselves out of windows to escape the fire”.
He pointed to a car bearing dents “left by a person who is now lying in the hospital with a broken arm and back”.
Firefighters hampered by narrow street
A resident of the area, Mina Masry, said emergency services were slow in responding.
Ambulances took “over an hour to arrive” and fire trucks “nearly an hour, though their station is five minutes away,” she said.
“If the ambulances had come on time, they could have rescued people.”
Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghafar said the first ambulance arrived at the site two minutes after the fire was reported.
Mr Baioumy, the neighbour, said firefighters were hampered by the church’s location “on a very narrow street”.
The Coptic minority has been targeted in deadly attacks by Islamist militants, particularly after former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was overthrown in 2013, with churches, schools and homes burnt down.
Copts also complain they have been left out of key state positions and they have deplored restrictive legislation for the construction and renovation of churches.
ABC/Wires
Funerals held in Cairo as Egyptians mourn 41 killed in Abu Sefein Coptic church fire & Latest News Update
Funerals held in Cairo as Egyptians mourn 41 killed in Abu Sefein Coptic church fire & More Live News
All this news that I have made and shared for you people, you will like it very much and in it we keep bringing topics for you people like every time so that you keep getting news information like trending topics and you It is our goal to be able to get
all kinds of news without going through us so that we can reach you the latest and best news for free so that you can move ahead further by getting the information of that news together with you. Later on, we will continue
to give information about more today world news update types of latest news through posts on our website so that you always keep moving forward in that news and whatever kind of information will be there, it will definitely be conveyed to you people.
Funerals held in Cairo as Egyptians mourn 41 killed in Abu Sefein Coptic church fire & More News Today
All this news that I have brought up to you or will be the most different and best news that you people are not going to get anywhere, along with the information Trending News, Breaking News, Health News, Science News, Sports News, Entertainment News, Technology News, Business News, World News of this made available to all of you so that you are always connected with the news, stay ahead in the matter and keep getting today news all types of news for free till today so that you can get the news by getting it. Always take two steps forward
Credit Goes To News Website – This Original Content Owner News Website . This Is Not My Content So If You Want To Read Original Content You Can Follow Below Links