Iraqi officials announced on Tuesday that at least five people were killed and 40 injured when a fuel tank belonging to a bakery exploded in the northern Kurdistan city of Dahuk, a new tragedy that exposes the extent of Iraq’s dilapidated infrastructure and disregard for safety standards.
And Kurdistan authorities announced after the accident that they were preventing the use of liquefied gas for domestic purposes, after “explosions occurred in several areas.” The explosion happened late on Monday evening.
“The explosion killed five people, including the deputy chief of civil defense police, two police officers, a student and a bakery worker, and injured about forty,” Duhok governor Ali Tatar told AFP.
According to the governor, the explosion occurred as a result of a gas leak from a cylinder installed on the roof of the building in which the student hostel lives. This is the second tragedy in Kurdistan in less than a week.
Fifteen people were killed and more than ten injured when a fuel tank exploded on Thursday in Sulaymaniyah, the region’s second city. The disregard for safety standards in the transport and construction sectors is common in Iraq and is leading to a repeat of the tragic incidents in the country, where much of its infrastructure is being destroyed.
In the middle of this month, two fires broke out at Baghdad International Airport within three days, causing asphyxiation. At the end of October last year, nine people died and 13 were injured when a gas tank exploded in Baghdad.
