A huge fire swept through the historical central mosque in Sari, capital of Mazandaran Province, on Thursday seriously damaging its wooden and mud structures.
The fire began at around 7 p.m. Mazandaran's Governor General Mohammad Eslami told reporters during rescue operations that faults in electrical cables running through the roof of the mosque had sparked the fire.
"The faults were caused by fierce heat and intense sunlight," he was quoted as saying by Chamedan news website.
The blaze was put out in five hours at about 11 p.m., but the wooden roofs were almost completely destroyed. The incident left no human casualties. Eye witnesses reported that the flames had spread to seven nearby stores and Nargesiyeh Bazaar.
According to Abbasali Rezaei, governor of Sari, the flames were so intense that firefighting forces from neighboring cities were called for help.
No Damage Estimate Yet
"The fire incident has severely damaged the history of the region," Rezaei regretted.
Reportedly, a team from the provincial office of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization was immediately dispatched to the scene which helped prevent massive damage to the main hall, the terrace and the minarets.
The old wooden altar was also safely removed from the mosque before the fire reached its location.
Some reports described the building as completely collapsed after the fire.
However, Seifollah Farzaneh, head of Mazandaran's ICHHTO office, said the amount of damage cannot be estimated now and requires closer observation of the site.
"Experts and protection unit forces are present at the scene and will begin their investigation after safety is ensured in the area," he said.
Mohammad Hassan Talebian, deputy for cultural heritage at ICHHTO, has also traveled to Mazandaran in person to observe the situation.
Plan for Restoration
Eslami said that with support from ICHHTO, restoration of the building will begin with full force to bring it back to its previous state "but security issues must be considered in the design."
The central mosque of Sari was nationally inscribed in the list of Cultural Heritage Sites.
It dates back to the first centuries of the post-Islamic era. The exact date of its construction and its founder are not known but the majority of experts attribute it to the period after the Abbasid Caliphate's conquest of Tabaristan (present-day Mazandaran) and the downfall of the Zoroastrian Dabuyid dynasty (759–760).
There are also tales suggesting that the mosque was built over the ruins of a Zoroastrian fire temple.
It is said to be the first mosque not only in Mazandaran, but also in the whole south Caspian strip.
The building has been frequently restored during the Qajar and Pahlavi periods (1789-1979).
