Fire Put Out after Blast at Petchem Plant in Iran

A blaze caused by a blast at a large petrochemical plant near Iran’s southwestern Persian Gulf coast was put out within hours on Friday, the Bandar Imam Petrochemical Company said.

The company said its own firefighters and regional fire teams extinguished the fire before it could spread from the plant’s aromatics unit, the semi-official ISNA news agency quoted the company as saying. One worker was slightly injured, the company added.

There was no immediate news on whether the fire affected production for what is one of Iran’s largest petrochemicals companies with exports of more than 1 million tons a year. It was the latest in a series of fires and blasts, some of which have hit sensitive sites.

Some of the explosions in the past few months appeared to be linked to Iran’s deteriorating infrastructure, while others may have been security-related, such as those at sensitive military and nuclear sites. - Reuters