(Erbil) A major fire spread to refinery fuel tanks in Iraq, injuring more than ten people, including civil defense rescuers who are still trying to put out the fire Thursday in autonomous Kurdistan (north).
The fire, the cause of which remains unknown for the time being, started on Wednesday evening from a “major crude oil reservoir”, before reaching a second neighboring refinery on a road southwest of Erbil, capital of Kurdistan autonomous, according to civil defense.
In the middle of the night, the mobilized firefighters tried to extinguish the flames which caused immense plumes of black smoke, according to an AFP photographer.
“More than 10 people were injured, mainly men from the Erbil Civil Defense,” the institution reported in a statement, specifying that three fire trucks had burned.
“The fire started from one refinery before spreading to a second,” according to the same source, specifying that four fuel tanks burned.
At midday on Thursday, the fire which affected the initial reservoir was still raging, despite the deployment of around thirty rescue teams, who were trying to “prevent the fire from spreading” and “wait for all the fuel in the tank burns,” according to a second statement from Civil Defense.
With the rise in temperatures in Iraq, the country accustomed to scorching summers has experienced several fires in recent weeks which have affected shopping centers, warehouses and even hospitals.
Iraq is regularly the scene of fires or fatal domestic accidents, often due to non-compliance with safety standards, particularly in the construction and transport sectors.
Despite immense hydrocarbon wealth, the country suffers from decaying infrastructure, ravaged by decades of conflict and poor public management tinged with corruption.
In December 2023, at least 14 people died in a fire in a building that housed university accommodation for students and professors in Kurdistan.
Three months earlier, around a hundred people died in a fire which broke out during a wedding in a village hall in Qaraqosh, in northern Iraq.
The second largest exporting country in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Iraq produces on average four million barrels of crude per day. With its reserves – 145 billion barrels of proven oil reserves – the country could continue to exploit black gold at the same yield for another 96 years, according to the World Bank.
