A fire that broke out on Sunday in the middle of a mass in a church in a popular district of Cairo killed 41 people, mourning the largest Christian community in the Middle East with 10 to 15 of the 103 million Egyptians .
The Egyptian Coptic Church reported “41 dead and 14 injured” citing “sources within the Ministry of Health”, in a statement posted on its Facebook account. This fire, the origin of which remains to be determined, has been brought under control, according to the authorities. It happened at the Abou Sifine church in the popular district of Imbaba, named after Saint Mercury of Caesarea, revered by the Copts.
“I have mobilized all state services to ensure that all measures are taken,” President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi immediately reacted on his Facebook account.
“The air conditioner in a classroom on the second floor of the building where the church is located broke down and released a large amount of smoke, which was the main cause of injuries and deaths,” explains the ministry of Interior.
The Abu Sifin Church — named after the holy Mercury of Caesarea, revered by the Copts — is wedged into a narrow alley in Imbaba. One of the fire engines intervened to put out the fire cluttered almost the entire width of the street in this densely populated district on the left bank of the Nile.
The church is on the ground floor of a building, separated by just a few meters by a vis-à-vis, surmounted by a cross and also housing a center for social services, according to a photographer from the AFP.
Reda Ahmed, who lives near the church, says that “the neighbors organized themselves to pick up the children”. But, he told AFP, “those who came back could no longer go back because the fire was too big”. The fire has been brought under control, authorities said.
“The ambulances arrived after more than an hour (…) so did the fire trucks, although the barracks are less than five minutes away”, denounces Mina Masry, another resident.
Witness to the tragedy, Sayed Toufik describes difficult scenes: “some threw themselves out of the windows to escape the fire, if you look at this car, you can see the traces of the impact left by a person who is now hospitalized, arm and back broken”.
A little further on, near a car on which broken glass, debris and ashes are piling up, Father Farid Fahmy, officiating in the neighboring church of Mar Yemina, affirms that “the fire started from a generator which started after a power outage and suffered an overload”.
The prosecution has announced an investigation.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi said he had “mobilized all state services so that all measures are taken”.
He later indicated “having already given directives to the military engineers for the reconstruction of the burnt church”, according to a press release from the presidency.
The local authorities have announced aid of around 2,500 euros for each of the families of the deceased and 500 euros for the injured.
The Conference of Catholic Churches in the Holy Land and the Grand Imam of Sunni Islam’s highest institution, al-Azhar, based in Cairo, offered their condolences to Coptic Pope Tawadros II.
They were preceded by Mr. Sissi who called Tawadros II, a proclaimed supporter of the head of state, the first president of Egypt to attend the Coptic Christmas mass each year while his predecessors sent representatives there.
Salah’s condolences
Egyptian international footballer Mohamed Salah expressed his condolences on Twitter, wishing “a speedy recovery to all injured”. In the sprawling megalopolis of Cairo, where millions live in informal settlements, accidental fires are not uncommon. Endowed with dilapidated and poorly maintained infrastructure, Egypt regularly experiences deadly fires in its various provinces.
Already on Monday, a church had caught fire in Heliopolis, a wealthy district in the east of Cairo, without causing any deaths or injuries. In March 2021, at least 20 people died in a fire at a textile factory in the eastern suburbs of Cairo. In 2020, two fires in hospitals killed fourteen people.
The main minority in the country, the Copts feel that they have been kept out of many positions in the public service and deplore very restrictive legislation for the construction of churches and much more liberal for mosques.
The subject is sensitive and Coptic human rights activist Patrick Zaki recently spent 22 months in detention for “spreading false information”, because of an article denouncing violations of the rights of Christians in Egypt.
Copts have suffered reprisals from Islamists, notably after Mr Sisi’s 2013 overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, with churches, schools and homes set on fire.
Mr. Sissi recently appointed for the first time in history a Coptic judge to head the Constitutional Court.