Rescue operation underway to put out massive blaze at Afghan-Iran border
An Iranian official says efforts are underway to put out a fire at a customs outpost in western Afghanistan on the border with Iran, but winds are fanning the flames across the region.
Director of Mahiroud Border Terminal, Ali Akbar Mazidi, told IRNA that the blaze started at the Abu Nasr-e-Farahi border crossing point in Afghanistan's western Farah province at 10:30 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) on Saturday, and swept through two tankers loaded with 500 metric tons of fuel.
He said strong winds helped the fire grow bigger and spread farther to two more fuel tankers.
Mazidi noted that fire brigades from Iran’s eastern South Khorasan Province rushed to the border area to assist their Afghan counterparts in extinguishing the massive fire.
Farah provincial governor Taj Mohammad Safi later said the major fire broke out at a fuel reservoir in the customs point, noting that four fuel trucks have been damaged and the fire is extending.
He said that efforts have started to extinguish the fire.
Back on February 13, dozens of fuel tankers were damaged in a massive explosion at the Islam Qala crossing in Afghanistan's western Herat province.
Reports showed that at least 60 people had been injured in the blaze. Others said many lorry drivers were feared dead.
At that time, Iranian customs officials said a key crossing on the eastern border with Afghanistan had not been affected by the massive blaze.
A senior official from Iran’s Razavi Khorasan province said that the fire in Afghanistan’s Islam Qala border crossing had not spread to Iran’s Dogharoon post.
“Up to now, there has been no report about damage on Dogharoon border terminal,” Omid Jahankhah, who serves as supervisor of customs offices in Razavi Khorasan, said back then.
Iran is a major supplier of goods to Afghanistan, and Dogharoon and Islam Qala terminals are busy with tanker trucks that transport fuel across the border.
The crossings also process passengers and cargo transit through Iran to Afghanistan and vice versa.
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