Fire at power plant, chlorine leak at petrochemical plant in Iran

A fire broke out at the Shahid Medhaj Zargan power plant in the city of Ahvaz in southwestern Iran on Saturday and a chlorine leak sent dozens of employees to the emergency room at a petrochemical plant in the same region on Saturday, according to Iranian media. The fire at the Zargan power plant broke out after a transformer exploded, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency. A spokesman for the Iranian electricity industry later told Iranian media that the 'connection' of one of the transformers caused the fire, not an explosion. No injuries were reported in the incident. About an hour after the fire at the power plant, 70 people were injured due to a chlorine gas leak at the Karun Petrochemical Company, located south of Ahvaz, according to the Iranian IRNA news agency. The leak occurred after a pipe from a tank at the site ruptured. The cause of the rupture is being investigated, according to a local official. Initial measures were taken to close the valve and cut off the chlorine, immediatly after the incident, but 70 people inhaled chlorine gas in the meantime, according to IRNA. These two incidents are the most recent in a string of incidents that have affected Iranian infrastructure in recent days. On Friday, June 26, an explosion was reported at a gas storage facility near Tehran. Iranian media reported that the incident happened in a 'public area' in Parchin and not at a military site located nearby. Western security services believe Tehran carried out tests relevant to nuclear bomb detonations in Parchin more than a decade ago. Iran denies this. Days later, on June 30, another explosion happened at a medical facility in Tehran, killing at least 17 people. Two days later, a mysterious fire broke out at the Natanz nuclear facility in Isfahan Province, Iran damaging a new factory within the facility which, according to experts, was built with the purpose of producing centrifuges on a large scale. Iranian officials said on Friday that they believe the fire that broke at the Natanz facility on Thursday, may have been caused by a cyberattack and that Israel and the US may be responsible. On Friday Tehran announced that it had identified the source of fire but 'due to security considerations' will not publish their findings at this time. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to address the incident in a press conference on Thursday. Reuters contributed to this report.

Fire at power plant, chlorine leak at petrochemical plant in Iran

The two incidents are the latest in a series of incidents that have affected Iranian infrastructure in recent days.

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Fire at power plant, chlorine leak at petrochemical plant in Iran

The two incidents are the latest in a series of incidents that have affected Iranian infrastructure in recent days.

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