On 12 June 2024, an early-morning

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

broke out at a residential building in

Mangaf Mangaf () is an area of Kuwait in the Ahmadi Governorate, east of the town of Ahmadi, on the coast of the Persian Gulf and south of Kuwait City. The area has a large concentration of shops and restaurants called Al Azeeziya including a link of ...

in Kuwait's

Ahmadi Governorate The Ahmadi Governorate is a Governorates of Kuwait, governorate in southern Kuwait. It is the second most populated governorate in Kuwait, behind Farwaniya Governorate. Many oil and petroleum companies such as Kuwait Oil Company, KOC and Kuwait ...

housing 196 male

migrant worker A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have an intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant workers ...

s of NBTC Group, killing 50 migrant workers, at least 46 of whom were from India, and injuring around 50 others. Most victims died of

smoke inhalation Smoke inhalation is the breathing in of harmful fumes (produced as by-products of combusting substances) through the respiratory tract. This can cause smoke inhalation injury (a kind of acute inhalation injury) which is damage to the respirator ...

, while others were fatally injured from

falling Falling or fallin' may refer to: *Falling (physics), movement due to gravity *Falling (accident) * Falling (execution) *Falling (sensation) People * Christine Falling (born 1963), American serial killer who murdered six children Books * ''Fal ...

. The building's owner was arrested in the wake of the fire. Indian officials such as Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

and Minister of State for External Affairs

Kirti Vardhan Singh Kirti Vardhan Singh (born 1 March 1966) is an Indian politician from Uttar Pradesh. He is currently serving as a Minister of State for External Affairs in the Third Modi Government and Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha for the Gonda constitue ...

offered condolences and

aid In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Th ...

for the relatives of the victims. They also arranged for the repatriation of the remains of their deceased nationals.

Incident

The fire was reported at 04:00

AST AST, Ast, or ast may refer to: Science and technology * Attention schema theory, of consciousness or subjective awareness Computing * Abstract syntax tree, a finite, labeled, directed tree used in computer science * Anamorphic stretch transform, ...

(01:00 GMT) on the ground floor of a six-storey residential building housing 196 all-male migrant workers of NBTC Group, which also leased the site. The fire began in the security room before spreading to the kitchen. Flames engulfed the lower part of the building and thick black smoke billowed from the upper floors. Most of the deaths were a result of

while sleeping, while several victims suffered from fall injuries. Security agencies rescued 67 people. Five firefighters were injured during the rescue efforts. Firefighters extinguished the blaze 10 minutes after they arrived. A preliminary investigation found that the fire was caused by an electrical

short circuit A short circuit (sometimes abbreviated to short or s/c) is an electrical circuit that allows a current to travel along an unintended path with no or very low electrical impedance. This results in an excessive current flowing through the circuit ...

in the security guard's room located on the ground floor of the building and was exacerbated by the use of a flammable material to partition apartments and rooms. It also found that victims were prevented from escaping to the rooftop by a locked door.

Victims

Fifty people were killed, and at least another 50 were injured and taken to hospital. All victims were male migrant workers, the majority from India, who were all employed for the NBTC Group. Indian embassy officials visited the injured in hospitals. As of 14 June, 48 bodies had been identified. It was the second deadliest fire in Kuwait since an

arson attack Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

in 2009 that killed 57 people. At least 46 of the dead were from India, including at least 23 from

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, seven from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, three from

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

and

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

, two from

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

, and one each from

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

and

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

. Their ages ranged between 20 and 50. Hospitals in the area admitted 56 patients from the fire. Around 50 Indians were injured, over 30 of whom were treated at Al Adan hospital, which was later visited by the Indian ambassador to Kuwait, Adarsh Swaika. Three overseas Filipino workers also died while two others were in a critical condition. Nepali nationals were among the injured. Kuwait is highly dependent on migrant labour, but their poor living conditions have been noted by human rights groups. From 2022 to 2024, over 1,400 Indian workers died in Kuwait, and the Indian embassy in Kuwait City received 16,423 complaints from March 2021 to December 2023 due to payment delays, harassment, and substandard accommodation. A large number of migrants returned to India due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aftermath

Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Fahad Yusuf Al-Sabah, Fahad Yusuf al-Sabah ordered the arrest of the building's owner and said violations of building standards led to the disaster. A senior police officer told state TV that warnings were often issued about overcrowding in this type of accommodation. The building's owner was later detained for negligence.

Reactions

Indian Prime Minister

called the disaster "saddening" and expressed condolences to the victims and their relatives. He announced an ex-gratia Humanitarian aid, relief of Indian rupee, ₹200,000 (US$2,394) to each of the families of the deceased Indian nationals from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. The Government of Kerala also pledged ₹500,000 in financial assistance to the families of people from the state that died. Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar also offered condolences, and Minister of State for External Affairs

said that he would provide assistance and repatriate the dead. On 14 June, their bodies were returned to India aboard an Indian Air Force aircraft, stopping first in Kochi, where the dead from south India were released, before proceeding to Delhi, where the remaining victims were claimed. The Filipino fatalities were repatriated on 17 June. Saudi Arabia's King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shared their condolences for Kuwait, with the king wishing a speedy recovery for the injured. The foreign ministries of the United Arab Emirates and Iran also expressed solidarity with Kuwait. On 13 June, the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council (KCBC), the Regional Bishops' Council for the State of Kerala, expressed their condolences to the families of all victims, calling the disaster "heartbreaking". Kerala reported a significant number of victims – 26 casualties, many identified as Christian. Its spokesperson, Father Jacob Palakkappilly, added that they were praying for the speedy recovery of the injured. On 18 June, the Kuwait government announced $15,000 (about 4,600 Kuwaiti dinars or ₹1,250,000) compensation to the families of the victims of the fire. NBTC group announced aid of 8 lakh rupees to the families of the victims of fire and assured ongoing support to them. Executives M. A. Yusuff Ali and Ravi Pillai announced aid of 5 lakh rupees and 2 lakh rupees respectively to each family.

Notes

References