“Our solace is that they went to heaven collectively as they appreciated to be collectively in life,” Habeib mentioned of her kinfolk, tears streaming down her face.
Nineteen of these killed within the Aug. 14 fireplace had been kids. The blaze erupted on the Martyr Abu Sefein Coptic Christian Orthodox Church within the neighborhood of Imbaba, certainly one of Egypt’s most densely populated areas. Sixteen individuals had been additionally injured, together with 4 law enforcement officials and residents concerned within the rescue effort. Well being authorities mentioned the casualties had been a results of smoke inhalation and a stampede as individuals tried to flee.
In accordance with prosecutors, the hearth was ignited by a short-circuit within the constructing’s generator, a backup supply of energy, which the church used throughout common outages. The generator, they mentioned, caught fireplace when the present returned after a blackout that morning.
Habeib lives in Shubra, one other densely populated, working-class district in Cairo. On the morning of the hearth, she mentioned she was on her strategy to work when she obtained a cellphone name from her brother. He advised her that he had heard there was a hearth at Abu Sefein and that their oldest sister, Magda Habeib, and her daughters had been there. She quickly realized that victims had been being delivered to a close-by hospital.
By the point she arrived, Mariam Habeib discovered herself going through what she had dreaded through the half-hour drive to the hospital.
Her nephew, Mina Atif, had acknowledged the our bodies of his mom, Magda, two sisters, Irine and Mirna, and Irine’s 5-year-old twin daughters, Barcina and Mariam. They roamed the halls on the lookout for the still-missing 3-year-old boy. Then they noticed hospital employees carrying a small physique wrapped in a white sheet. It turned out to be the physique of Irine’s toddler, Ibram.
“All of them had been mendacity immobile earlier than our eyes,” she mentioned. “The children had been very full of life ones, as in the event that they knew that their finish could be quickly.”
Habeib and her nephew collapsed in disbelief, two among the many dozens of weeping grief-stricken kinfolk on the hospital’s morgue.
Though officers dominated out arson, the hearth — one of many deadliest in Egypt in a few years — raised a barrage of questions in regards to the emergency response system, fireplace security codes and restrictions on constructing homes of worship for one of many Center East’s largest Christian communities.
The Martyr Abu Sefein Church was in a 120 square-meter (1,290 square-foot) house in a four-story transformed condo constructing that appears like different residential buildings within the crowded neighborhood constructed largely with out planning or permits. It was recognizable as a church solely by an indication above its entrance door, and an iron cross on its roof.
Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II mentioned the church, like many others, is just too small for the variety of congregants it serves. He blamed authorities restrictions on new church development and urged authorities in Muslim-majority Egypt to maneuver present small church buildings to new areas or permit them to develop to accommodate rising numbers.
The boundaries on new church development have led many congregations to transform residential buildings into locations of worship. In 2016, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s authorities issued the nation’s first legislation spelling out the foundations for constructing a church. Critics argued the legislation did nothing to ease earlier restrictions.
Only a day earlier than the hearth, on Saturday, the whole household had been collectively for his or her weekly household gathering, steps away from the church.
“It was a really lovely day, as in the event that they had been saying goodbye,” mentioned Michael Ayad, who’s married to Nermin, certainly one of Magda’s two surviving kids. Additionally current was the fiancé of Magda’s youngest daughter, Mirna, 22, a college pupil. The 2 had been meant to have been married this yr.
Days later, Mina, Magda’s son, was receiving tons of of mourners on the identical dwelling the place his household had been completely happy days earlier than. Dozens of neighbors and kinfolk got here to recollect the useless, many talking by means of tears.
A neighbor of 40 years who recognized herself as Um Azza, recalled how Magda Habeib was among the many first to attempt to settle disputes between neighbors regardless of their faith, even marital issues.
“Everybody on the street is in debt to her for her generosity,” she mentioned, preventing again tears.
Magda’s husband had died a decade in the past, however the 61-year-old continued to reside in the identical condo the household had inhabited for 30 years. Her two youthful kids Mina and Mirna, lived along with her. Her two married daughters, Nermin and Irine, lived in the identical neighborhood. Irine’s husband had died final yr of a coronary heart assault, leaving her a single mom to 3 younger kids. Irine and her kids stayed the night time on Saturday, to go to church along with her mom the subsequent morning.
“Tante Magda used to say, Irine and the children are my function for the remainder of my life,” Ayad recalled, utilizing the French equal of aunt. “They went to Abu Sefein to die collectively.”
