PH officials to help identify, repatriate 14 Filipino bodies in Iraq fire

A police officer walks towards the scene of a fire in a hotel and adjacent massage parlor which has killed several people and injured others Frida, Feb. 5, 2016, in Irbil, capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Nawzad Hadi, the governor of Irbil, said the fire broke out in the sauna of the Hotel Capitol at 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon. He said that 15 of the victims were identified as from the Philippines, three were Iraqis and one was Palestinian. AP Photo

Philippine officials will fly to Kurdistan to help identify and repatriate the bodies of the 14 Filipinos killed in a hotel fire in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region in Iraq, according to Elmer Cato, Philippine Embassy in Iraq Charge d’Affaires.

The 14 Filipinos killed in the fire are all believed to be hotel employees, the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad said in an online message.

Embassy officials are off to fly to Erbil in a few hours to identify the victims, notify their relatives and make arrangements for their repatriation.

They will also meet with authorities of the Kurdistan Regional Government to discuss the results of their initial investigation into the incident.

The fire struck the Capitol Hotel in Erbil on Friday night and also killed several others, aside from the 14 Filipinos. Reports say the fire was suspected to have started from an electrical problem in the sauna of Capitol Hotel.

Reports have conflicting numbers on the final death toll. Some say 19 were killed, while other reports put the number at 21. RAM

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