As many as 10 gas tankers caught fire after a massive fire erupted as a result of what some local officials describe as ‘recklessness’ in the northern part of the western Herat city.
The firefighters rushed to the site where tankers were burning and stopped it after three hours, said Jilani Farhad, the spokesperson for the Herat governor.
The fire erupted around 07:00 AM on Saturday, April 10, leaving a man severely burned.
Juma Gul, a victim, told Kabul Now that the fire eruption has inflicted a total of USD 200,000 financial loss to him. He claimed that the firefighter acted late, something that left a huge financial loss.
On the other hand, Zainab Mohseni, head of the public relations department at the Da Afghan Breshna Shirkat in Herat, told Kabul Now that a transmission line of the imported electricity from Turkmenistan was also destroyed as a result of the fire eruption.
Efforts are underway to rebuild the fallen electricity line, she said.
This is not the first time a massive fire erupts in the area. A massive fire erupted in the same area that inflicted a huge financial loss a few years ago.
Residents of Kamar Kalagh, a neighborhood close to the gas facilities, urge the government to relocate the facility of gas corporates to another area—somewhere far from the residential area.
Herat has seen two huge fire eruptions very recently.
In February, a massive fire erupted in Islam Qala border town of Herat, damaging more than 1,200 trucks and inflicting an estimated 50 million USD loss on Afghan traders. The fire eruption left 17 people injured.
Those affected by the fire have shut Herat-Islam Qala and Herat-Turghundi highways since April 03, protesting against the government for not compensating their financial losses.