At least 32 people died on Friday in a major fire that broke out at a drug treatment center in northern Iran, a judicial source said.
“Thirty-two (people) died and 12 were hospitalized after a fire broke out at a drug rehabilitation center in Langarud,” the vice president of that region, a city in Gilan province north of Tehran, told Isna Agency. Mohammad Jalai.
“Sixteen people were injured,” of whom “four are in critical condition,” he added.
The Isna agency published images of the fire lighting up the sky overnight and releasing thick clouds of smoke. Other images showed firefighters and first responders working in front of a blackened and heavily damaged building.
An initial report sent by the head of the provincial judiciary, Esmail Sadeghi, to the judiciary’s press organ, Mizan Online, said that 27 dead and 12 injured were taken to hospital.
An investigation is underway to determine the cause of this fire, said Mr. Sadeghi, quoted by Mizan. He stated that the center could accommodate up to forty people.
In August, a fire at the Grand Bazaar in Tehran damaged numerous shops without causing any deaths.
In July 2017, a fire at the 15-story Plasco shopping center in Tehran killed 22 people, including 16 firefighters.