The fire started on Saturday afternoon in Awagrd village and was brought under control by civil defense teams and villagers shortly after, according to a local Rudaw reporter who spoke with eyewitnesses; however, the blaze started raging again later in the night.
Three firefighting teams were dispatched to the affected area, according to Sarkawt Fuad, director of Koya civil defense.
“We suspected that the fire started due to an electrical short circuit in one of the nearby poultry farms,” Fuad told Rudaw.
The fire was largely brought under control on Sunday morning. However, the blaze wasn't fully extinguished, according to Rudaw’s reporter, and nearly 1,000 dunams of land and forests have been burned.
Due to the large presence of landmines in the area, civil defense teams have yet to fully extinguish the fire, Fuad said, adding that they have contacted Erbil civil defense to provide aerial support and send firefighting helicopters to extinguish the blaze on top of the mountain.
“The fire is too large, and it's beyond human abilities to control,” Smaquli village chieftain Kwekha Hemin told Rudaw on Saturday night, saying they suspect that the blaze was started intentionally.
Fires are a perennial concern in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region where safety standards are often lacking. They are especially frequent in the summertime's scorching heat.
Around 1,300 fires were reported during the first five months of 2024, resulting in at least 60 deaths, according to data from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
A massive fire spread across Sulaimani city’s famed Mount Goizha in July, burning around 200 dunams of land.
Abubakir Isamil contributed to this report
