Six firefighters injured as blaze rages at chemical factory in northern Iran
A large fire destroyed a chemical factory in northern Iran yesterday.
The Fars News Agency broadcast images of a column of smoke rising from the Shokuhieh Industrial Zone in Qom province, about 130 kilometres south of Tehran.
Six firefighters were injured responding to the blaze, one of them critically.
Several petrochemical companies that make a variety of plastic products operate in the industrial zone.
Iran’s Isna news agency reported that the fire was at the Movaledan chemical factory.
Twenty fire engines and 150 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze, the Qom Fire Department said.
It said firefighters fought to stop the flames from reaching explosive substances, including alcohol.
A spate of fires and large-scale industrial accidents, including a gas pipeline explosion, were reported in Iran last year.
The pipeline blast happened near the border with Turkey.
There have also been several explosions at Iranian nuclear sites.
Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, claimed those incidents were caused by Israeli or US cyber attacks.
Tehran has been more guarded about possible causes of the industrial incidents, which peaked in the summer and autumn of last year.
The official Irna news agency said Israel was responsible, but the government was more cautious.
It blamed Israel for incidents at Iran’s underground Natantz nuclear site, but not the industrial areas.
Last month, there was a power cut at the Natanz nuclear site.
State TV reported that the incident happened hours after new advanced centrifuges were started at the site.
Mr Salehi said the incident was the result of sabotage and that Iran reserved the right to respond.
In July last year, a blaze in the southern Iranian coastal city of Bushehr gutted seven ships docked at the port and an aluminium factory in the industrial city of Lamard, in Fars province, caught fire.
That same month, explosions hit a petrochemical plant in Mahshahr and an industrial complex in Mashhad. The blasts occurred within 24 hours of each other.
There was also an explosion at a power station in Isfahan days later.
These industrial incidents happened at about the same time as blasts at the Natanz nuclear site and near Iran’s Parchin military complex.
Iran claimed Israel was behind the incidents, but Israel has not claimed responsibility for any of them.
“Not every incident that transpires in Iran necessarily has something to do with us,” Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz told Reuters in July last year.