ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Five people lost their lives in a refugee camp just outside Damascus on Monday after a failed operation to rescue a drowning person in a metal fuel storage at a gas station. The tragedy occurred after a young man named Walid, who was working at a gas station in al-Wafideen Camp, opened the storage hatch to measure the level of gasoline and fell in, leading to the death of four others, one by one, who went to rescue him. Two of the victims were Walid's uncle, Jihad, and his son, who first arrived at the scene of the incident. They fell into the storage due to the fumes while trying to rescue him. The incident further escalated after two more people, who were reportedly brothers, heard the screams and went to help them and also fell into the storage in another failed attempt. "Five people were stuck in the storage. We rushed to the scene as soon as we heard the screams. We wanted to rescue them with the help of other people. But we failed to do so because of the fumes from the gas. Some people among us fainted due to the strong smell, and we brought them down. After that, we called on Hay'at (Tahrir Sham), and their emergency teams arrived to recover their bodies from the storage," Wisam Ibrahim, an eyewitness, told Rudaw. Fakhri Dawod is the brother of Jihad, one of the victims. "He (Jihad) wanted to provide people in the camp with enough gasoline because we were really affected by the scarcity of fuel. May peace be upon Mohammed. The deceased had left behind four sons. Two are gone, and two remain: Fuad and Shadi," he said.
