A fire broke out on Wednesday at Iran's Mobin Petrochemical Complex in the southern port city of Asalouyeh and wounded four people, the latest in a string of blazes in the region, Reuters quoted the state news agency IRNA as saying. "The fire ... is now under control," Qasem Qaedi, crisis management coordinator in the southern province of Bushehr, said. Qaedi noted the fire has caused no threat to the operations in the South Pars Gas Fields in Asalouyeh. In the last few months several petrochemical plants in Iran have caught fire. Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said last month that most of the fires happened because the privatized petrochemical companies have cut funds for health and safety inspections. On July 6, a massive fire broke out in Bouali Sina Petrochemical Complex in the southern oil-rich province of Khuzestan in what was described as the largest incident in the oil and gas industry in recent times. Nine people were injured. A few weeks later, fire erupted at the Bistoon Petrochemical Company in Kermanshah Province but had no fatalities.
