TEHRAN, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Five workers were killed and three others were injured when a blast ripped through a petrochemical plant in southern Iran, the government announced.
Iranian authorities said workers sparked the explosion Wednesday while they were welding a pipeline at the Pardis petrochemical plant in Asalouyeh.
One of the injured workers was listed in critical condition at an area hospital. Emergency responders were able to control the blaze, though the plant suffered major damage, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reports.
A second phase of the plant came on stream last week to process natural gas from the giant South Pars complex in the Persian Gulf.
In early July, Iranian firefighters extinguished a fire at an oil well in the western province of Kermanshah nearly 40 days after it started.
A natural gas explosion at a rig in the Naftshahr field set balls of flames into the air in late May, killing three workers and leaving 12 others injured. The blaze at one point was consuming 8,000 barrels of oil per day.
Provincial officials in southern Iran, meanwhile, blamed high pressure at the boiler at the petrochemical factory on the southern Iranian island of Kharg for causing a blaze that killed four people two weeks ago.
Iran has some of the largest oil deposits in the world and the island hosts Iran's biggest oil terminal in the Persian Gulf.
Iranian officials said the energy industry has maintained a "clean safety record."
