HERAT, Afghanistan (AP) – An oil tanker exploded on Saturday at the crossing of Islam Qala in western Herat province of Afghanistan, on the border with Iran, injuring at least seven people and causing a massive fire that consumed more than 500 trucks carrying natural gas and according to Afghan officials and Iranian state media.
It was not clear as soon as it caused the explosion. Wahid Qatali, Herat’s provincial governor, said the first Afghan respondents did not have the means to put out the huge fire and called for Iran’s support in the form of firefighting planes.
“For now, 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 explosion, said Mohammad Rafiq Shirzy, a spokesman for the regional hospital in the capital Herat, also called Herat.
Seven people injured in the fire have been hospitalized so far, he said.
The semi-official ISNA news agency quoted truck drivers as saying they burned more than 500 trucks carrying natural gas and fuel.
Two explosions at the border crossing were strong enough to be observed from space by NASA satellites. An explosion broke out around 13:10 Afghan time (0840 GMT), the second half an hour later at 13:42 local time (0912 GMT).
The fire continued to burn after nightfall and forced Afghanistan to shut down Iran’s electricity supply, leaving Herat in the dark, said Wahidullah Tawhidi, a spokesman for the food ministry.
The road between Herat and Islam Qala is a dangerous stretch of highway that Afghans rarely drive at night for fear of gang attacks. Taliban insurgents also travel freely in the area. Afghan security services set up checkpoints and assisted ambulances and emergency vehicles traveling to and from the border.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that at the request of Governor Herat, “Iranian rescue forces and firefighters are extinguishing the fire in Afghanistan,” according to Mohsen Nejat, director general of crisis management in the Iranian province. Khorasan Razavi.
The fire spread to Dogharoon customs facilities on the Iranian side of the border, and first responders – including firefighters, the Iranian army and border forces – helped put out the fire, according to Iranian state television. The Afghan side of the border crossing has its own fire department, but Herat officials said they had no control over the fire even in the first few minutes.
Crossing the Islam Qala border is about 120 kilometers west of Herat and is a major transit route between Afghanistan and Iran.
The United States is allowing Afghanistan to import fuel and oil from Iran as part of a special concession that exempts Kabul from US sanctions against Iran. Satellite photos taken before the blast on Saturday showed dozens of tanks parked across the border.
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Vahdat contributed from Tehran, Iran.