On Thursday, the 17-story Plasco building in the Iranian capital of Tehran collapsed following a massive fire that one witness told Reuters resembled a “scene from a horror movie.” According to the Islamic Republican News Agency (IRNA), at least 50 firefighters battling the blaze were killed when the “symbol of modernity” (which dates back to the early 1960s) finally buckled under the fire’s pressure and collapsed into its foundation and the surrounding block.
Per the Los Angeles Times, the local Iranian media reported at least 70 people — including firefighters and residents — were thought to be trapped in the rubble. State television cited by Reuters upped the number to 75, and identified at least 45 firefighters who were counted among those injured by the fall. At the time of this report, rescue workers were trying to find at least 25 firefighters in the wreckage, according to Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
Witnesses interviewed on the scene described the harrowing experience of the building’s demise. A restaurant owner who saw the “building [collapse] in front of me” compared it to a horror movie, whereas a local tour guide lamented “this landmark of modernity is gone.” Yet despite the apparent terror of what the Plasco building’s demise looked like, the same tour guide remarked it had “[taken] revenge from the people who misused it” after recalling a story about security agents who allegedly dropped a political activist from the top floor for refusing to reveal any information about anti-government activities.
(Via Los Angeles Times & Reuters)