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Iran News: One Dead, Several Injured in Shushtar Refinery Fire Amid Safety Concerns 

A devastating fire broke out late Tuesday, October 15, at the Pars Petro Refinery located in Shushtar’s Industrial Park No. 1, leaving one person dead and six others injured. The deadly blaze, which engulfed several gasoline tanks, is yet another example of the Iranian regime’s chronic negligence and disregard for public safety. 

According to local reports, the fire was triggered by the collision of a tanker with one of the refinery’s gasoline tanks. Despite attempts to downplay the disaster, eyewitness accounts and state media reluctantly confirmed that the fire spread quickly, overwhelming local firefighting teams who struggled to contain the blaze. As Mohsen Seyed Mousavi, the head of Shushtar’s fire department, admitted, “Nine storage tanks caught fire, but efforts are still ongoing to extinguish the remaining flames,” acknowledging that five tanks were successfully extinguished only after several hours of intense effort. 

The catastrophic event has exposed yet another instance of gross mismanagement and safety violations within Iran’s industrial sectors. Even as government officials like Ali Abdollahi, Director of Crisis Management in Khuzestan Province, hastily attributed the incident to “failure to follow safety procedures during refueling,” the deeper truth of systemic negligence and lack of proper industrial oversight remains clear.

 

In a statement to the press, Shushtar’s governor, Seyed Mousavi, confirmed that one worker lost their life and several others were left severely injured due to the fire, four of whom were admitted to the Khatam-al-Anbia Hospital in Shushtar, while two others suffering from extensive burns were transferred to Ahvaz’s Ayatollah Taleghani Burn Center for treatment. Yet Mousavi’s efforts to assure the public that the “majority of the fire has been controlled” fail to address the larger issue of why safety protocols were so blatantly ignored in the first place. 

The incident also highlights the Iranian regime’s manipulation of public perception by exaggerating their response efforts while minimizing the extent of their failure. While regime-controlled media like Mehr News emphasized the “swift response” of emergency teams and efforts to “safeguard” the refinery from further destruction, the real question remains: why do such accidents continue to happen in the first place, putting workers’ lives at risk? 

This tragedy is yet another symbol of the clerical regime’s misplaced priorities. Instead of ensuring the safety and well-being of its citizens and workers, it continues to focus resources on military ventures and internal repression, leaving vital infrastructure projects like refineries vulnerable to catastrophic failure.