BAGHDAD — At least 30 people were injured in a massive fire that broke out at a fuel facility in Iraq’s northern Sulaymaniyah province, according to local media on Tuesday.Aram Ali, spokesman for the Sulaymaniyah Civil Defense Directorate, said the fire erupted at a complex used for petroleum products in the Tanjaro area, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.He said civil defense teams rushed to the scene and managed to extinguish the blaze.“The fire has been completely controlled, and we reassure citizens that there is no impact on the quantities of fuel and petroleum products supplied in the province,” Sulaymaniyah Deputy Governor Shaho Osman said in statements carried by local outlet Shafaq News.Sulaymaniyah Civil Defense Director Brig. Gen. Ari Mohammed said four firefighters sustained various injuries and received treatment at the scene.The fire broke out after midnight and was accompanied by explosions in tanks containing highly flammable materials, while security forces cordoned off the area and diverted traffic away from the site, local media reported.According to Shafaq News, the fire injured around 30 people with varying degrees of burns, most of them workers and site crews.Most of the injured received first aid and left hospitals, while an Iranian worker remained under medical care due to the severity of his injury, it added.Hersh Saeed Saleem, the deputy director general of Sulaimaniyah, told the Rudaw Media Network that no one was killed, but some 30 people had been hurt, with all injuries described as minor.Shafaq News, another local news outlet, separately reported two burn cases, one of which required hospital treatment.The fire broke out just before midnight at a warehouse in the Tanjaro area, one of the province’s main fuel supply sites, according to Rudaw.Emergency crews and security forces rushed to the scene as the blaze intensified, with several explosions reported as flames spread through the facility.Shafaq News, citing a local source, reported that 34 petrol tankers and four gas-oil tankers were destroyed, with the fire consuming more than 3 million litres of fuel.The cause of the fire remains unclear.Civil defense teams from Sulaimaniyah were leading the firefighting effort, while their counterparts in the city of Erbil said they were on standby to help if called upon.Authorities have yet to release a full damage assessment for the site.
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