CAIRO —
More than 40 people died when fire ripped through a Cairo-area Coptic Christian
church during Sunday mass, forcing worshippers to jump out windows while
bystanders braved flames and smoke to save children.
اضافة اعلان
The blaze, blamed
on an electrical fault, hit the Abu Sifin church in densely populated Imbaba, a
working-class district west of the Nile River, part of Giza governorate in
greater Cairo.
Witnesses
described people rushing into the multi-story house of worship to rescue those
trapped but the rescuers were soon overwhelmed by heat and deadly smoke.
“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.”
Another witness,
Sayed Tawfik, told AFP that “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”.
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.”
Masry added: “If
the ambulances had come on time, they could have rescued people.”
The Egyptian
Coptic Church and the health ministry reported 41 dead and 14 injured in the
blaze before emergency services said they had brought the blaze under control.
A statement from
the public prosecution service indicated that asphyxiation caused the deaths,
as there were “no visible injuries”.
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 surge
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 houses social services.
Father Farid
Fahmy, of another nearby church, told AFP 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.”
In the morning,
President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said on his Facebook page that he had “mobilized
all state services” in response. He later said he had “presented his
condolences by phone” to Pope Tawadros II, the head of the Coptic Orthodox
Church.
He also directed
the Armed Forces Engineering Authority to “take over the reconstruction and renovation”
of the church, the presidency said in a statement.
Christian
communities often complain that the reconstruction of churches after
devastating fires is marked by long delays and bureaucratic hurdles.
Giza’s governor
ordered “urgent aid of 50,000 pounds (around $2,600) for the families of the
deceased and 10,000 pounds for the injured”.
The grand imam of
Al-Azhar, Egypt’s foremost Muslim institution, expressed his condolences for
“the tragic accident” and affirmed “the readiness of Al-Azhar hospitals to
receive the injured”.
Accidental fires
are not uncommon in the sprawling megalopolis of Cairo, where millions live in
informal settlements.
Baioumy, the
neighbor, told AFP that firefighters were hampered by the church’s location “on
a very narrow street”.
Egypt, with its
often dilapidated and poorly maintained infrastructure, has suffered several
deadly fires in recent years.
Religious minority
The Coptic minority has endured attacks and complained of discrimination
in the North African country, the Arab world’s most populous.
Copts have been
targeted in deadly attacks by Islamist militants, particularly after Sisi
overthrew former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi 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.
Sisi, the first
Egyptian president to attend the Coptic Christmas mass every year, in February
appointed the first ever Coptic judge to head the Supreme Constitutional Court,
the country’s highest.
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