03 June 2021; MEMO: A massive fire that erupted last night at an oil refinery near Iran's capital Tehran is still raging despite attempts to extinguish it. There have been no reports of casualties.
The Tondguyan refinery, which is run by Tehran Oil Refining Co, has reportedly ruled out the possibility of sabotage. According to Tasnim news agency, people across different neighbourhoods in the city could see thick plumes of black smoke over the refinery.
"A leak at a liquid gas pipeline at the facility sparked the fire," Mansour Darajati, Tehran crisis team head, told state television. Darajati said the leak caused an explosion which began the fire at around 7:30pm local time.
According to Jalal Maleki, spokesman of Tehran's firefighters, one of the gas tankers in the plant has also caught fire, while a spokesman with the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution, said that a gasoline tanker with the capacity of 20,000 barrels caught fire in the incident and that there had been no blast.
The incident took place on the same day that Iran's largest navy ship caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz. Investigations are currently underway as to the cause of the fire, although it has been reported by local media that a fire started in the boiler room of the Kharg vessel, making it the second time in the past three months that an Iranian ship sustained serious damage at sea.
