On the third day of mourning, several families of the victims of the fire in the church of the martyr Abi Sefein, west of Cairo, witnessed the commemoration of six members of the same family, including two five-year-old twin girls.
A fire broke out in the church of Martyr Abi Sefein on Sunday due to an “electrical problem”, killing 41 people by asphyxiation, according to the Interior Ministry. Sadness gripped the Egyptians, especially the Copts, who make up 10 to 15% of the 103 million Egyptians and are the largest religious minority in the Middle East.
On a third day of mourning at a church in downtown Cairo, Sandy George told AFP on Tuesday: “My aunt Magda, her daughters Mirna and Irina and three of Irina’s sons” died of asphyxiation.
Irina’s twins Parthenia and Maria, as well as their 4-year-old brother Abram, were among the many children killed in the fire during a morning church service as families flocked to the church. A list of some of the victims of the fire, published by local media, lists the names of ten children under the age of sixteen, including triplets, among the dead.
The bishop of the central Cairo church told mourners on Tuesday that “the whole country is suffering” from what happened. On Sunday evening, a ceremony was held in two churches in Cairo to bury the victims of the fire. On Monday evening, another church in Giza experienced a “short circuit” in an electrical panel inside its building, but it was brought under control and did not result in any losses, according to a statement from the Home Office.
