Just Earth News | @justearthnews | 03 Jun 2021, 11:20 am Print
Iran oil refinery fire Credit: All images tweeted by @IrnaEnglish (IRNA News Agency)
Tehran: A massive fire broke out in an oil refinery located south of Tehran on Wednesday evening, according to the country's state media.
No lives have been lost and no injuries have been reported so far, said Shaker Khafaei, the head of public relations of Tehran Oil Refining Co., reported state news agency IRINN.
Firefighters from different areas of Tehran and other forces were immediately dispatched to the area to extinguish the fire, state-run IRNA News Agency said.
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Khafei also ruled out possibility of sabotage
According to the head of Tehran crisis management Mansour Darajati, the incident occured when a gas pipeline in the refinery caught fire on Wednesday evening, Reuters reported.
The cause of the fire will be investigated, he said, Reuters added.
Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh had reached the site of the accident and monitored the situation.
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Social media videos showed thick black smoke issuing from the refinery and covering the skies of the southern part of Tehran.
State-run Young Journalists Club (YJC) agency, said some 18 tankers of the refinery caught fire in the accident, CNN reported.
Reuters said Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency has reported temporary closure of all operations at the refinery, known as the Tondgooyan refinery.
According to Hamed Armanfar, the refinery's CEO, the fire had subsided to a great extent by Thursday, state media IRINN said.
The "volume of fires has decreased a lot compared to before, and now only five percent of the initial fires remain," adding that the efforts of the firefighters had successfully stopped the flames from spreading to other tanks, CNN report cited above stated.
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