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Tehran fire: dozens of firefighters killed after tower collapses Tehran fire: dozens of firefighters feared dead as tower collapses
(about 3 hours later)
A high-rise Tehran building engulfed by a fire has collapsed, killing at least 30 firefighters and injuring 75 other people, according to state media reports. Dozens of firefighters in Tehran are feared dead after the city’s oldest high-rise building caught fire and collapsed.
Firefighters had been battling the blaze at the Plasco building, a landmark structure in the centre of the Iranian capital, for several hours when it collapsed. The 17-storey Plasco building, a landmark 1960s shopping centre in the heart of the Iranian capital close to the British embassy, caught fire in the early hours of Thursday, the flames initially engulfing upper floors before spreading throughout.
Press TV announced the firefighters’ deaths, without giving a source for the information. The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, ordered a full investigation into the collapse, dramatic images of which were aired live on state television. The Fars news agency, quoting an unnamed source, reported that 30 firefighters were feared to have died in the blaze and ensuing collapse.
State television said 30 civilians were injured in the disaster, while the state-run IRNA news agency said 45 firefighters had been hurt. The deaths have not been confirmed. The mayor of Tehran, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, said: “About 20 to 25 firefighters have been trapped beneath the rubble.” A spokesperson for the rescue operation put the number of those stuck in the ruins as between 30 and 50, the state Irna news agency reported. A group of firefighters were reported to have been inside the building trying to put out the blaze when it collapsed.
Police had been trying to keep out shopkeepers and others wanting to rush back in to collect their valuables. At least 70 people were reported to have been injured, many of whom have been taken to hospital. The British embassy was reported to have been evacuated.
The building came down within seconds, shown live on state television, which had begun an interview with a journalist at the scene. The Plasco, considered Iran’s first modern high-rise tower block, housed several businesses involved in the distribution of clothes, a factor which reportedly exacerbated the fire’s rapid spread.
A side of the building came down first, tumbling perilously close to a firefighter perched on a ladder and spraying water on the blaze. An Iranian journalist who witnessed the incident said the fire, which local media reported started at 7.30am, had soon spread to the lower floors despite attempts to contain it.
A plume of brown smoke rose over the site after the collapse as onlookers wept. “I was in Jomhouri street just by the Plasco at about 8.20am this morning. In the beginning only the upper floors were burning but by 9am, it had spread to lower floors,” the journalist, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Guardian by phone from Tehran.
Jalal Maleki, a fire department spokesman, told Iranian state television that 10 firehouses responded to the blaze, which was reported at about 8am local time. “Firefighters were trying to stop the fire through a crane because waters from the ground could not reach the upper floors, but they were unsuccessful. The police soon cordoned off the area, particularly from the nearby Istanbul juncture, but it was full of chaos; you could see no crisis management,” she said.
The Iranian military sent units to help with the disaster, state television reported. Eshagh Jahangiri, Iran’s first vice-president, visited the rubble scene alongside the country’s health minister and other senior officials. “It was shocking and unbelievable,” Jahangiri said on the state television. “A number of our people, especially our great firefighters, have been trapped. The government is assisting with help from other forces including the military.”
The 17-storey tower was built in the early 1960s by Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian and named after his plastics manufacturing company. Ghalibaf also went to the scene. “The fire was reported at 7.59am and within two minutes firefighters reached the area,” he said.
It was the tallest building in the city at the time of its construction and was situated just north of the bazaar. Pictures showed shocked firefighters mourning their colleagues after one of the biggest rescue operations in Tehran in recent years. One, seen in photographs taken by the local Tasnim news agency, wept as he knelt on the ground. Another hugged a colleagues who had returned alive from the scene.
Elghanian was tried on charges that included espionage and executed in the months after the 1979 Islamic revolution that brought the current ruling system to power, a move that prompted many members of the country’s longstanding Jewish community to flee. The 56-year-old Plasco, which housed 400 businesses, was built by Habibollah Elghanian, a former head of Tehran’s Jewish society, who named the building after his plastics manufacturing company. Elghanian was the first senior member of Iran’s Jewish religious minority to be executed at the time of the 1979 Islamic revolution over allegations of spying for Israel. His death led to an exodus of a considerable number of Iranian Jews abroad, mainly to Israel.
The tower, situated just north of the city’s bazaar, was attached to a multistorey shopping centre featuring a skylit atrium and a series of fountains. Eghbal Shkeri, a senior official from Tehran’s city council, said previous warnings in regards to the building’s safety had been ignored. “Repeated warnings had been given about the building and its fire control system was very weak,” he said, according to the state-run Iribnews.ir.