Sunday 6 June 2021

Eleven injured in fire at oil refinery in Tehran.

Eleven people were injured fighting a fire at an oil refinery in the south of Tehran, Iran, this week. The fire broke out on Wednesday 2 June 2021, and was brought under control and then extinguished within 24 hours. It was initially thought to have been triggered by a leak from a natural gas pipeline, but is now thought to the leak occurred from a waste storage tank, with a second tank also being engulphed by the blaze. The state-owned Tondgooyan Petrochemical Company, which operates the site, has ruled out sabotage as a cause of the blaze, with an investigation into the precise origin of the fire still ongoing. 

 
Fire at an oil refinery in Tehran on 2 June 2021. Vahid Ahmadi/Tasnim News Agency/AFP/Getty Images.

Iran has suffered a number of serious oil fires in recent years, caused by a combination of a decaying infrastructure, and deliberate attacks by opponents of the regime. However, on this occasion the cause of the fire appears to have been more mundane, with fire the fire likely to have been triggered by volatile fumes leaking from the tank being ignited by the heat of an Iranian summer day.

See also...














Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter