Fire at Qushtapa refugee camp

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) – On Wednesday, a fire broke out at Syrian refugees’ camp, located in south of Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

Six tents at Qushtapa camp flamed up in the morning, injuring six people from one family, witnesses in the camp told K24.

"Our neighbor's tent caught fire at about four in the morning; they were all asleep. I was awake chatting on my cellphone, and I could see the fire at the beginning," a 22-year-old man who did not want to be identified, told K24.

The man also said that the fire injured a man named Fawaz, the father of the family with his wife and four children. "I was stunned by what I saw and ran towards the tent to wake them up, but the fire was extensive and spread to other five tents," he said.

Sirwan Abed, the manager of Qushtapa camp, told K24 on Wednesday, "We have not investigated the cause of the fire yet because we were busy taking the injured to a hospital in Erbil."

Abed noted that three children had serious injuries while the others were in a good condition. "Units of Erbil civil defence forces and firefighters reached the camp in half an hour, distinguished the fire, and helped  take the injured to a hospital in Erbil," Abed added.   

On August 19, 2013, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) established Qushtapa camp to host people who were fleeing war-torn Syria. The vast majority of refugees at Qushtapa are from Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan).  

According to the latest statistics of Syria Regional Refugee Response on November 28, 2015, the camp has 6631 registered Syrian refugees.