Tehran
TehraniStock

A massive fire broke out Wednesday night at the oil refinery serving Iran’s capital Tehran, The Associated Press reported.

The fire sent thick plumes of black smoke over Tehran. It was not immediately clear if there were injuries.

The fire struck the state-owned Tondgooyan Petrochemical Co. to the south of Tehran, said Mansour Darajati, the director-general of the capital’s crisis management team.

Firefighters believe it struck a pipeline for liquefied petroleum gas at the facility, Darajati told Iranian state television. He did not elaborate.

It was not immediately clear what started the blaze, but AP noted that temperatures in Tehran reached nearly 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday. Hot summer weather in Iran has caused fires in the past.

The fire came hours after a fire struck the largest warship in the Iranian navy, which later sank in the Gulf of Oman. The crew was able to safely disembark.

The incident occurred near the Iranian port of Jask situated on the Gulf of Oman.

It came more than a year after an Iranian warship accidentally struck another with a missile during an exercise, killing 19 sailors and wounding 15 others.

The area in which the incidents have taken place has seen tense encounters between the US and Iran in recent years.

In the last few years there have been several close encounters between Iranian and American vessels in the Persian Gulf. The Revolutionary Guard typically patrols the shallower waters of the Persian Gulf and its narrow mouth, the Strait of Hormuz.

One such incident in May of 2020 included a tense encounter between US and Iranian ships in the Persian Gulf.