The foreign minister of Kuwait announced on Thursday that the death toll from the catastrophic fire that destroyed a building housing immigrant workers had increased to 50, with the majority of the casualties being from India.
Authorities in the Philippines reported that three Filipinos were among the deceased, as the fire caused black smoke to spiral through the six-story structure located south of Kuwait City.
Over four million people live in oil-rich Kuwait, the majority of them are foreign workers in the construction and service sectors, with many of them coming from South and Southeast Asia.
Dozens more were injured in the fire in Mangaf, south of Kuwait City, which broke out around dawn on Wednesday at the ground level of the block housing nearly 200 workers.
“One of the injured died” overnight, Foreign Minister Abdullah Al-Yahya told reporters, after 49 people were declared dead on Wednesday.
“The majority of the dead are Indians,” he added. “There are other nationalities but I don’t remember exactly.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country is “doing everything possible to assist those affected by this gruesome fire tragedy”, in a post on X late on Wednesday.
Next of kin will receive payments of 200,000 rupees ($2,400), Modi’s office announced.
India’s junior foreign minister Kirti Vardhan Singh, who has arrived to help survivors and repatriate remains on an Indian air force plane, said DNA testing was needed to identify some victims.
“Some of the bodies have been charred beyond recognition, so DNA tests (are) underway to identify the victims,” he told Indian media.
In Manila, the Department of Migrant Workers said three Filipinos died from smoke inhalation, with two more in critical condition while six escaped unharmed.
“We are in touch with the families of all the affected (workers), including the families of those two in critical condition and the families of the three fatalities,” Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo J. Cacdac said in a statement.
Due to possible incompetence, Kuwaiti officials have detained the building’s owner and issued a warning that any blocks that disobey safety regulations will be closed.
Kuwait, which borders Saudi Arabia and Iraq and is home to 7% of the world’s known oil reserves, had one of the biggest fires in its history.
57 people perished in 2009 after a Kuwaiti woman set fire to a tent at a wedding celebration after her husband took a second wife, ostensibly in retaliation.
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