More than 35 people were killed and dozens injured on Wednesday in a fire that broke out at dawn in a building housing about 200 foreign workers in Kuwait City, CBS News reports.
Forty-three people were injured in the fire in the Mangaf neighbourhood south of Kuwait City, home to a large number of migrant workers, the Health Ministry said.
Major General Eid Al-Owaihan, head of the interior ministry’s General Department of Criminal Evidence, said:
“Unfortunately, we received a report of a fire at… exactly 6:00 am (0300 GMT) in the Mangaf area. As for the deaths in the building behind me, the number has exceeded 35 so far.”
Footage from the scene shows soot blackening the outside of the six-storey building where 196 workers lived, according to information provided to the minister by their employer.
Oil-rich Kuwait employs a large number of foreign workers, many of whom are from South and Southeast Asia and are mainly employed in the construction or service industries.
A source at the General Fire Department said the victims suffocated from smoke after the fire broke out on the ground floor. Forensic experts are working at the scene and have so far identified three bodies, Owaihan said. The nationality of the victims was not reported, but the Indian ambassador contacted by AFP news agency said he was at the hospital visiting the victims.
Indian FM expressed “deepest condolences”
Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar wrote on X that he was “deeply shocked by the news” and expressed “deepest condolences to the families of those who tragically lost their lives.”
The owner of the building has been detained as part of an investigation into possible negligence, said Interior Minister Sheikh Fahd al-Yousef, who visited the scene.
All properties found to be in breach of safety regulations will be evacuated immediately, he warned. The minister said:
“We will work to address the issue of labour overcrowding and neglect. We will detain the owner of the property where the fire broke out until legal procedures are completed.”
The fire is one of the worst in Kuwait, which borders Iraq and Saudi Arabia and has about seven per cent of the world’s oil reserves.
In 2009, 57 people died when a Kuwaiti woman, apparently seeking revenge, set fire to a tent at a wedding party when her husband married his second wife. Nusra al-Enezi doused the tent with petrol and set it on fire while people were celebrating inside. She was hanged in 2017 for this crime, which victimised many women and children.
