Iran: Port city fire latest in series of mystery blazes

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN (AA) - In another mysterious fire in Iran, a blaze in a southwestern port city Wednesday afternoon damaged at least seven ships in a shipyard, local reports said.

The incident happened at a shipbuilding factory in Bushehr on the Persian Gulf coast, close to a nuclear power plant, according to reports.

Firefighters were trying to douse the flames and bring the situation under control, provincial crisis management head Jahangit Dehqani told state media.

The blaze follows a string of similar mysterious incidents in various parts of Iran in recent weeks, giving rise to conspiracy theories and wild speculation.

Many of these incidents have been reported close to key military and nuclear facilities, as well as important industrial centers, triggering suspicions of sabotage.

The mysterious fire incidents were reported twice in last two weeks in the same region – the Persian Gulf.

One on Sunday was at the Shahid Tondgooyan petrochemical facility in the port of Mahshahr, the hub of Iran’s petrochemical industry. Another was at the Karoon petrochemical facility, in the same region, a few days before, leaving around 70 people injured.

In both incidents, local officials laid the blame on “technical problems” due to hot weather.

On Monday, a similar incident was reported at an industrial facility in the northeastern city of Fariman, cause unknown.

Officials have so far denied reports of “foreign hands” in these incidents, which began on June 26, when an explosion was reported near the Parchin military site in northeast Tehran due to “a gas tank explosion.”

There were further incidents on June 30 and July 2.