Two Yazidi children died in their sleep in Sharya village, Duhok province, when their room burned down due to electrical fire. Their mother was busy washing clothes in the bathroom, and, as a result, she could not rescue them.
Ellen, three and a half years old, and Aland, a year and a half, are the two children, who died on February 13 at 10 p.m. in their room.
Nawaf Edu, the two children’s uncle, said, “after 9 p.m., they were in their beds, and the fire caught just before 10 p.m., both of them burned and died… unfortunately, we could not rescue them.”
Unfortunately, we could not rescue them
The family of the children is displaced. During the fire, their father was not at home, and their mother was washing clothes.
Edu mentioned that electrical fire was the reason for the room’s fire. He said that their house was built with bricks, but the roof was covered with wood and plastic nylon, which led the fire to grow fast.
The room was closed, we tried a lot to open it to rescue them, but we could not do it... we broke the door and stopped the fire. They already died,” their uncle said.
Khiro Qassem, a neighbor of the family, said that it was 10 p.m. when the mother started shouting and asked for help.
“We immediately called firefighters,” Qassem said, “before the arrival of the firefighters, we controlled the fire, but unfortunately, Elen and Aland already died.”
Before the arrival of the firefighters, we controlled the fire, but unfortunately, Elen and Aland already died
Falit Dawd and Sara Ilyas are parents of the two children. They are from Sinjar and married in 2016.
Qassem stated that “if the firefighters had come on time, it would have been different.”
However, Rebwar Abdul Aziz, head of media department of the Duhok Civil Defense Directorate, said, “we arrived in 10 minutes, and it was because of snow and bad weather… they should have called us sooner.”
“When we arrived, great part of the house was burned, and, unfortunately, the two children had already died.”
