KURDISTAN

Firefighters battle massive fire at northern Iraq oil refinery

BY SALAR SALIM and ABDULRAHMAN ZEYAD
Thu, June 13, 2024 


An oil refinery burns outside Irbil, Iraq, Thursday, June 13, 2024. 

(AP Photo/Bilind Tahir/Rudaw)

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — A team of 32 firefighters in northern Iraq was battling to put out a massive fire Thursday, a day after it broke out at an oil refinery, local officials said.

The fire broke out late Wednesday at a large refinery in Irbil, in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

Shakhawan Saeed, a spokesperson for the Irbil Civil Defense Department, said 14 firefighters were injured -- four with burns and the other due to smoke inhalation -- while battling the blaze, which also destroyed four fire engines.


Saeed said the cause of the fire was not yet clear but that the facility appeared to be lacking in safety measures, including alarms and fire extinguishers. The owner of the refinery could not immediately be reached for comment.

A regional government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, told the Associated Press that the fire appeared to have been caused by an electrical fault.

Irbil's Gov. Omed Khoshnaw said the financial damages caused by the refinery fire were estimated at $8 million.

The Khazir refinery, owned by local private businessmen, is one of the largest in Irbil, producing gasoline, kerosene, and white oil. It had been a major supplier for the city of Mosul.

Iraq's Kurdish region produces hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil each day. Previously, much of the production was exported by way of Turkey, but the exports have been halted for more than a year as a result of a ruling in an international arbitration case.

The central government considers it illegal for Irbil to export oil without going through the Iraqi national oil company and won the arbitration case against such trade.

In Iraq, summer fires are often fueled by scorching temperatures, unreliable electricity, and lax safety standards in many facilities.

In May, a fire erupted in a bazaar in Erbil, burning at least 200 shops and four storage units and injuring at least 100 people.

On Sunday, a massive fire engulfed commercial storage units in central Baghdad, covering a 3,000 square meter area made of highly flammable materials, and killed four foreign Arab workers.

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Zeyad reported from Baghdad. Associated Press journalist Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.





An oil refinery burns outside Irbil, Iraq, Thursday, June 13, 2024. 

(AP Photo/Bilind Tahir/Rudaw)


Fire at Iraqi oil refinery injures 10: civil defence

AFP
Thu, June 13, 2024 

A massive fire at an oil refinery in Iraqi Kurdistan injured at least 10 people including firefighters battling to control the blaze, which was ongoing Thursday, the civil defence agency reported.

The fire broke out in an asphalt tank on Wednesday night before spreading to a second refinery on a road southwest of Arbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region.

Firefighters worked through the night battling to extinguish the flames, which sent thick plumes of black smoke and balls of orange flame into the sky, an AFP photographer reported.

"More than 10 people were injured, mainly men from the Arbil civil defence," the agency said in a statement, noting three fire trucks were burned.

The cause of the blaze was still unknown, it said.

"The fire started in one refinery before spreading to another," the statement said. Four fuel tanks had been affected.

With Iraq experiencing scorching summers, the country has seen multiple fires in recent weeks, affecting shopping centres, warehouses and hospitals.

Iraq is one of the world's biggest oil producers, and crude oil sales make up 90 percent of Iraqi budget revenues.

But exports from the Kurdistan region have been halted for more than a year in a dispute over legal and technical issues.

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