SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - A child died on Sunday, and three other family members remained in critical condition as a result of a fire that broke out last week in Barika refugee camp in Sulaimani province due to an electrical failure.
The fire erupted on Monday and spread through the family’s shelter. Doctors at Sulaimani’s emergency burn hospital told Rudaw that the 38-year-old mother, two boys, and a girl aged between five and 15 suffered burns covering more than 50 percent of their bodies and have remained under intensive care.
Camp director Payam Salam told Rudaw that 14-year-old Omar Bozan succumbed to his injuries on Sunday. She added that the fire was caused by an electrical fault that triggered power appliances to catch fire.
"I had the phone on charge while the air conditioning was on. The air conditioner exploded with the phone after an electrical short [circuit] occurred, and they both caught on fire," Yasmin Bozan, who suffered minor injuries, told Rudaw on Saturday. "My sister is a little better; however, my mother and two brothers are in a very bad condition."
Mahmoud Hussein, a relative of the family, said, “This is the fifth day they’re under intensive care, and they haven’t improved not one bit. Not one of them has moved a finger or taken a breath; they’re breathing with the assistance of machines and medicine.”
The victims are members of an eight-person refugee family from Kobane in northeast Syria (Rojava) who have lived in the camp for the past 12 years.
More than 250,000 Syrian refugees remain registered in the Kurdistan Region, according to Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) data, more than a decade after the Syrian civil war and the Islamic State’s 2014 siege of Kobane triggered a major influx of displaced people.
Despite the prolonged displacement, humanitarian organizations have faced major international funding cuts in recent years, increasing pressure on camp infrastructure and leaving many refugee families in overcrowded shelters with limited public services.
Peshawa Bakhtiyar contributed to this article from Sulaimani, Kurdistan Region.