The Iraqi Civil Defense Directorate announced on Sunday extinguishing a fire at a hotel in central Karbala.
A Civil Defense statement said its teams rescued 78 persons after a fire broke out inside the four-storey Dai Al-Hussain Hotel, with a number of shops on the ground floor located in Al-Saddah Street in the center in the city of Karbala, Iraq state news agency reported.
"Civil defense ambulance teams provided pulmonary resuscitation for those who suffocated as a result of inhaling the toxic effluents of the fire before transferring them to a nearby hospital to receive the necessary care, affirming that a girl died in the hospital as a result of suffocation," the statement added.
According to the Civil Defense statement, an investigation into the incident was launched to determine the causes of the fire.