The church quickly filled with thick black smoke and witnesses said several trapped colleagues jumped from the upper floors to escape. “Suffocation, suffocation, everyone is dead,” said a distraught witness, who gave only a partial name, Abu Bishoy. The cause of the fire at Abu Sefein Church in the working-class neighborhood of Imbaba was not immediately known. According to a police statement, the initial investigation indicated an electrical short circuit. Footage from the scene released online showed burnt furniture, including wooden tables and chairs. Firefighters were seen putting out the fire while others carried the victims to ambulances. Families were waiting for information about relatives inside the church. Witnesses said there were several children inside the building when the fire broke out. “There are kids we didn’t know how to handle,” Abu Bishoy said. “And we know not whose son he is, or whose daughter she is. Possible?” The country’s health minister blamed smoke and commotion as people tried to flee the fire for causing the casualties. It was one of the worst fires in Egypt in recent years. Witness Emad Hanna said the church includes two spaces used as a daycare center for children and that a church worker managed to get several children out. “We went up the stairs and found people dead. And we started to see from outside that the smoke was getting bigger and bigger and people want to jump from the upper floor. … We found the children.” Egypt’s Coptic Church and the country’s health ministry reported the number of victims. The church said the fire broke out while a service was in progress. The church is located on a narrow street in one of the most densely populated neighborhoods of Cairo. Fifteen fire engines rushed to the scene to put out the flames, while ambulances took the injured to nearby hospitals, officials said. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke by phone with Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to express his condolences, the president’s office said. Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, also expressed his condolences to the head of the Coptic Church. “I am closely following the developments of the tragic accident,” El Sisi wrote on Facebook. “I have instructed all concerned government agencies and bodies to take all necessary measures and immediately deal with this accident and its consequences.” Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghafar said in a statement that two of the wounded had been discharged from hospital while 12 others were still hospitalized. The interior ministry said it received a report of the fire at 9 a.m. local time and found that the fire started in an air conditioner on the second floor of the building. The ministry, which oversees the police and fire department, blamed an electrical short circuit for the fire, which produced huge amounts of smoke. Meanwhile, the country’s attorney general, Hamada el-Sawy, ordered an investigation and a team of prosecutors was sent to the church. Later on Sunday, emergency services said they had managed to put out the fire and the prime minister and other senior government officials arrived to inspect the scene. Egypt’s Christians make up about 10 percent of the country’s more than 103 million people and have long complained of discrimination by the nation’s Muslim majority. Sunday’s fire was one of the worst in recent years in Egypt, where safety standards and fire regulations are poorly enforced. In March last year, a fire at a clothing factory near Cairo killed at least 20 people and injured 24 others.
