Afghans, Iranians fighting fire at border
HERAT, Afghanistan — A fuel tanker exploded Saturday at the Islam Qala crossing in Afghanistan’s western Herat province on the Iranian border, injuring at least seven people and causing a fire that consumed more than 500 trucks carrying natural gas and fuel, according to Afghan officials and Iranian state media outlets.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the blast. Wahid Qatali, Herat’s provincial governor, said emergency personnel did not have the means to put out the huge fire and had requested support from Iran in the form of firefighting aircraft.
“For the time being, we can’t even talk about the casualties,” Qatali told The Associated Press.
The intensity of the flames meant ambulances were having trouble reaching the wounded or getting close to the site of the blast, said Mohammad Rafiq Shirzy, spokesman for the regional hospital in Herat’s provincial capital, also named Herat.
Seven people injured by the fire have been admitted to the hospital so far, he said.
Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted truck drivers as saying more than 500 trucks carrying natural gas and fuel have burned.
The fire continued to burn after nightfall, and forced Afghanistan to shut down its electrical supply from Iran, leaving Herat in the dark, said Wahidullah Tawhidi, spokesman for the power ministry.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that after the request from Herat’s governor, Iranian “rescue forces and fire fighters are underway to extinguish the fire inside Afghanistan,” according to Mohsen Nejat, director-general of crisis management in Iran’s Khorasan Razavi province.