A fire broke out early on Thursday, July 16, 2026, at a two-storey orphanage in the Mohammadia district, a suburb east of Algiers, Algeria's capital. The country's civil defence reported that the blaze killed at least 11 people, including children, and injured 19 others. The cause of the fire remains unknown.

Firefighters were still working to extinguish the flames several hours after the fire began around 3:00 to 3:30 am local time. A witness, Abdessalam Merrah, said, "At around 3:00 am, we heard the fire engines arriving and the children screaming." Another witness reported that firefighters used a chainsaw to remove metal bars from a window to aid rescue efforts.

Five individuals with special needs were safely evacuated and transported to a safe location. Several injured were taken to a specialist burns hospital.

Algerian Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb visited survivors in hospital and expressed the government's condolences, stating that medical teams were instructed to provide the best possible care for the injured. He said, "On behalf of the president and the members of the government, I would like to extend our sincere condolences to the families of the victims."

Algeria has been enduring an intense heatwave for several days, which has led to nearly 1,000 fires across the country in the past week, placing emergency services under heavy pressure. Authorities have launched an investigation to determine the cause of the fire and assess if additional safety measures are needed for vulnerable facilities during extreme heat.

Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who was on an official visit to Berlin, expressed his condolences and confirmed that "several children" were among the dead. He said, “It is with a heart resigned to the will of Allah that I learned of the death of children and the injuries suffered by other children of Algeria following the fire that broke out in a childcare institution.”

Security and judicial authorities are investigating the incident as firefighting and search operations have concluded.

Sources