HALABJA, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A fire in the Mordin area of Halabja, near the Iranian border, has killed at least two people, with efforts toward bringing the blaze under control still in progress with no avail.

The blaze has burned a substantial area of land in the region and is still expanding despite joint efforts from Halabja’s civil defense forces, forest and environment police, and local volunteers to bring the inferno under control, according to Zanyar Omar, the spokesperson for Halabja’s civil defense forces.

“Two people have died so far, one belonging to the forest police department and one a volunteer; the fire is still expanding,” Omar told The New Region.

The fire started on Sunday afternoon and has raged on since, burning a “substantial area of land” in its wake, according to Omar, who added that the cause of the fire remains unknown as of the time of writing this article.

Mohammed Sheikh Haider, an officer of Halabja’s forest police forces, lost his life on Monday while combating the blaze, said Halabja’s forest police in a statement, marking the second victim of the incident after a civilian volunteer also succumbed to the fire on Sunday.

Nestled along the border with Iran in the eastern area of Halabja, Mordin was a battlefront during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and thus remains littered with unexploded ordnance. Efforts to bring the fire under control are “made more difficult by the presence of mines and rough terrain in the area,” the civil defense spokesperson noted.