HERAT, Afghanistan (AP) – A tanker exploded at the Islam Qala crossing in the western border province of Herat on Saturday, injuring at least seven people and causing a massive fire that consumed more than 500 trucks. which carried natural gas and fuel. to Afghan officials and Iranian state media.
It was not immediately known what caused the explosion. Wahid Qatali, Herat provincial governor, said the first Afghan respondents did not have the means to put out the huge fire and had called for support from Iran in the form of fire planes.
“At the moment, we can’t even talk about the victims,” Qatali told The Associated Press.
The intensity of the flames meant that ambulances had trouble reaching the injured or approaching the site of the blast, said Mohammad Rafiq Shirzy, a spokesman for the Herat regional capital hospital, also known as Herat.
So far, seven people injured by the fire had been admitted to the hospital, he said.
The semi-official ISNA news agency quoted truck drivers as saying more than 500 trucks carrying natural gas and fuel had been burned.
Two explosions at the border crossing were powerful enough to be seen from space by NASA satellites. An explosion erupted around 1:10 pm Afghan time (0840 GMT), the next about half an hour later at 1:42 pm local time (0912 GMT).
The fire continued to burn after the night and forced Afghanistan to shut down Iran’s electricity supply and left Herat in the dark, said Wahidullah Tawhidi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Electricity.
The road between the city of Herat and Islam Qala is a dangerous stretch of highway that Afghans rarely travel at night for fear of criminal gang attacks. Taliban insurgents also travel freely around the area. Afghan security services had set up checkpoints and were assisting ambulances and emergency vehicles traveling to and from the border crossing.
The Iranian state news agency IRNA reported that following the request of the governor of Herat, “rescue forces and firefighters are underway to extinguish the fire inside Afghanistan,” according to Mohsen Nejat, director general of crisis management in the Iranian province of Khorasan Razavi.
The fire spread to Dogharoon customs facilities on the Iranian side of the border and first aid, including the fire brigade, the Iranian army and border forces, helped put out the fire, according to television. Iranian state. The Afghan side of the border crossing has its own fire department, but Herat officials said they did not control the fire even in the first few minutes.
The border crossing of Islam Qala is located about 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of the city of Herat, and is an important transit route between Afghanistan and Iran.
The United States allows Afghanistan to import fuel and oil from Iran as part of a special concession that exempts Kabul from U.S. sanctions against Iran. Satellite photos taken Saturday before the blast showed dozens of tankers parked at the border crossing.
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Vahdat contributed from Tehran, Iran.