One year passes since Bakhdida wedding fire

Yasmeen Altaji | Sept. 26, 2023

One year has passed since a fire engulfed an event hall during an Assyrian wedding in Bakhdida (Qaraqosh), Iraq, killing more than 100 people. 

The fire was found to have been caused by pyrotechnic flares. A government investigation determined the fire an “accident”, but community members and some religious leaders were left unsatisfied by the probe.

Some community reports put the death toll close to 140, but a government count said 107 were killed.

Bakhdida, located in the Nineveh Governorate about 32 km southeast of Mosul, is a predominantly Assyrian-populated town in Iraq’s north. It was ravaged by ISIS in 2014 at a time when it was considered the largest Christian town in the country. 

In the year since the fire, several nonprofits worked with the local community, largely supported by donations from diaspora communities, to provide medical supplies, treatment and resources to victims and their families. They include the Shlama Foundation’s ongoing two-phase project providing medical supplies and short and long-term treatment to victims of the disaster; Nineveh Rising’s three-part donation of medications, and the Assyrian Aid Society’s fundraiser.

You can revisit our coverage of events as they unfolded below. 

Fire in Iraq event hall kills nearly 100

Iraq wedding fire “an accident”, government investigation says

One week after the Iraq wedding fire, here is what has happened