Mecca fire of 1997 were injured and 217 killed, though witnesses and local newspapers claimed at least 300 were killed, many trampled in the panic. Later official reports gave a death toll of 343, no official list of fatalities has been published. Opposition sources claimed over 2,000 deaths had occurred, many from trampling. The fire was fought by three hundred fire engines as well as helicopters, and controlled in three hours. Mecca fire of 1997 The Mecca fire of 1997 was a fire that occurred in the tent city near Mecca in Saudi Arabia 15 April 1997, killing between 217 and 300 people. The
Black mecca of Harlem" was also the title of a 2010 book by Temple University professor Zain Abdullah about Muslim West African immigrants in New York City, using "Mecca" not only in the generic sense of "a place that people are drawn to" but also playing on the original meaning of Mecca as the Muslim holy city. Rarely are places other than Atlanta and Harlem mentioned as black meccas, though in questioning the status of Atlanta as a black mecca, comparisons are often made to other cities with large black populations with cities over 200,000 people, such as Birmingham, Detroit, St. Louis,