This is a list of major structural fires in Egypt. It includes fires with one or more confirmed fatalities in a workplace or other public place (e.g., trains), or that result in the loss of the building.
Fire inspections and regulatory enforcement are lax in Egypt, especially since the 2011 Egyptian revolution, [1] so large and deadly fires are somewhat more common than usual. [2] [3] [4] The government of Egypt said that there were nearly 50,000 reported fires, in which 203 people died and 855 people were injured, during 2022. [5]
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Fire | Year | Place | Deaths | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Police station fire | 2023 | Ismailia | 0 [5] | 38 people injured. [5] |
Giza church fire | 2022 | Giza | 41 [6] | Electrical problem in an air conditioning unit. [6] [7] |
Clothing factory fire | 2021 | Obour | 20 [8] [7] | Caused by chemicals stored in the basement. [8] Also 24 injuries. [7] |
Hospital fire | 2021 | Kafr El Sheikh | 2 [9] | Electrical problem in hospital ICU unit caused a fire that killed two patients. [9] |
Shoe warehouse | 2021 | Giza | 0 [1] | Business was unlicensed. [2] 13-story building engulfed by fire. [1] |
Juvenile detention center | 2021 | Cairo | 6 [10] | |
Hospital fire | 2020 | Obour | 7 [9] | Fire in ICU unit. [9] |
Hospital fire | 2020 | Alexandria | 7 [9] | Fire in the hospital killed seven patients and injured another. [9] |
Highway fire | 2020 | Cairo | 0 [2] | Cars on a nearby highway set fire to a leaky oil pipeline. [2] 17 people were injured. [2] |
Ramses Station rail disaster | 2019 | Cairo | 25 [11] | Train derailment, possibly due to brake failure. [12] [13] |
Restaurant fire | 2015 | Cairo | 17 [14] | Arson by a disgruntled ex-employee. [14] Restaurant had no emergency exits. [14] |
Furniture factory fire | 2015 | Obour | 25+ [3] | Gas container exploded in an elevator at a factory without safety permits. [2] [3] |
Beni Suef Cultural Palace fire | 2005 | Beni Suef | 46 [15] | A candle set fire to the stage scenery. Fire extinguishers were not in place, and the theater was overcrowded. [16] |
El Ayyat railway fire | 2002 | near El Ayyat | 370+ [17] | Fire on board, probably caused by portable cooking gas used by a passenger to heat food, resulted in hundreds of deaths. [17] [18] |
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Egyptian National Railways is the national railway of Egypt and managed by the parastatal Egyptian Railway Authority.
Protests against the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état erupted in July 2013. Immediately following the removal of President Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian Armed Forces on 3 July 2013 amid demonstrations against Morsi's rule, many protesters amassed near the Rabia Al-Adawiya Mosque to call for Morsi's return to power and condemn the military, while others demonstrated in support of the military and interim government. Deadly clashes such as Rabaa massacre continued for several days, with three particularly bloody incidents being described by officials as "massacres" perpetrated by security forces. During the month of Ramadan, prime minister Hazem al-Beblawy threatened to disperse the ongoing Pro-Morsi sit-ins in Rabaa al-Adaweya square and al-Nahda square. The government crackdown of these protests occurred in a violent dispersal on 14 August 2013. In mid-August, the violence directed by the army towards the protesters escalated, with hundreds killed, and the government declaring a month-long nighttime curfew.
In July 2013, at the same time as mass protests began against the 3 July coup d'état which deposed Mohamed Morsi, and in parallel with the escalation of the already ongoing jihadist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, pro-Muslim Brotherhood militants started violent attacks against policemen and soldiers in central and western Egypt. In the following months, new Islamist armed groups were created to reinstate Islamist rule in Egypt, like Soldiers of Egypt and the Popular Resistance Movement. Since 2013, violence in mainland Egypt has escalated and developed into a low-level Islamist insurgency against the Egyptian government.
The Alexandria train collision occurred on 11 August 2017 near Khorshid station in the suburbs of the eastern edge of Alexandria, Egypt.
The Ramses Station rail disaster occurred on 27 February 2019 in Ramses Station of Cairo, Egypt. Twenty-five people were killed and forty injured.
Events in the year 2021 in Egypt.
On 11 March 2021, a fire occurred at a clothing factory in Obour, a city in Egypt near Cairo. It killed at least 20 people and injured another 24. Fifteen fire trucks were dispatched to extinguish the fire.
An Islamist insurgency has been ongoing in the Sahel region of West Africa since the 2011 Arab Spring. In particular, the intensive conflict in the three countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has been referred to as the Sahel War.
On 14 August 2022, a fire broke out at the Abu Sefein Church, a Coptic Christian Orthodox church in the Imbaba neighborhood of Giza on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. The fire started during Sunday worship services when nearly 5,000 worshippers were gathered. The fire, which investigations found started due to a faulty air-conditioning unit, spread to a nursery the church hosted, killing 41 people in total throughout the complex, including at least 18 children. One of the church's priests, Abdul Masih Bakhit, was among those who died in the fire.