Flames and thick smoke caused by an accidental blast killed one person and wounded 25 Tuesday as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated a unit in Iran’s Abadan oil refinery, officials and media said. The president was unaffected by the explosion and he went on to make a televised address from the refinery, located in the city of Abadan, southwestern Iran, officials said.
According to the official news agency IRNA, the fire occurred in the unit which was inaugurated by Ahmadinejad on Tuesday but officials quickly played down the incident. “This was not an important accident. The refinery’s operation is ongoing,” the director of Abadan refinery, Abdolreza Mehraban, told state television. He said the blast occurred “in a small part of the recently inaugurated unit” and that the accident “was dealt with.”
“After making his speech the president inspected the affected part of the unit,” Mehraban said, adding that that the “damage will be repaired in the coming days.” Hamid Qenati, Abadan’s governor, was quoted by IRNA as saying that the fire occurred in a petrol-making unit and that it was unintentional.
