A massive fire at an oil refinery in Iraqi Kurdistan raged for about 20 hours and injured at least 14 firefighters who on Thursday finally brought the blaze under control.
The fire broke out in a major crude oil tank on Wednesday night before spreading to a second refinery on a road southwest of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous northern region of Kurdistan, the civil defense agency said.
The cause of the fire remains unknown. The firefighting efforts lasted more than 16 hours and involved over 40 teams.
The civil defense agency said the fire, the cause of which remains unclear, “started in one refinery before spreading to another”.Iraq is one of the world’s biggest oil producers and crude oil sales make up 90 percent of budget revenues