A fuel tanker exploded on Saturday at the Islam Qala crossing in Afghanistan’s western Herat province on the Iranian border, injuring at least seven people causing a massive fire that consumed more than 500 trucks carrying natural gas and fuel, according to Afghan officials and Iranian state media.
The explosions at the border were powerful enough to be spotted from space by Nasa satellites. One blast erupted around 1.10 pm Afghan time (8.40 am GMT), the next about a half-hour later at 1.42 pm local (9.12 am GMT).
The widespread fire forced Afghanistan to shut down its electrical supply from Iran, leaving Herat in the dark, said Wahidullah Tawhidi, spokesman for the Ministry of Power Supply.
Iran’s state-run Irna news agency reported that after the request from Herat’s governor, Iranian “rescue forces and firefighters are underway to extinguish the fire inside Afghanistan,” said Mohsen Nejat, director-general of crisis management in Iran’s Khorasan Razavi province.
Iran’s semi-official Isna news agency quoted lorry drivers as saying more than 500 trucks carrying natural gas and fuel had been burnt so far leaving sixty peoples seriously injured.
Wahid Qatali, Herat’s provincial governor, said Afghan first responders did not have the means to put out the fire and had asked Iran for help in the form of firefighting aircraft. “For the time being, we can’t even talk about the casualties,” Mr. Qatali said.
The intensity of the flames meant ambulances were having trouble reaching the wounded or getting close to the site of the blast, said Mohammad Rafiq Shirzy, a spokesman for the Herat regional hospital.
The blaze spread to the Dogharoon customs post on the Iranian side and first responders – including the fire department, the Iranian army, and border forces – were assisting in extinguishing the fire, Iranian state television reported. Trucks carrying natural gas and fuel were directed to leave the scene.
The road stretched 20 kilometers between the city of Herat and Islam Qala is a major transit between Afghanistan and Iran and is a dangerous highway that Afghans rarely travel at night for fear of attacks by criminal gangs. Since Taliban insurgents travel freely in the area, Afghan security services set up checkpoints and were assisting ambulances and emergency vehicles traveling to and from the border crossing.
The United States allows Afghanistan to import fuel and oil from Iran as part of a concession that exempts Kabul from sanctions against Tehran.
