A fire at an Iranian defense ministry’s car battery factory has been extinguished, report says

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A fire in a storage area of an Iranian defense ministry’s car battery factory north of the capital has been extinguished, state TV reported Friday.

The fire happened around midnight in a 2-square-kilometer (about 500-acre) storage area of plastic items in the factory north of Tehran. The TV footage showed a black column of smoke rising in the nighttime sky.

Firefighters were able to put out the fire with no casualties and the cause is under investigation, the report said.

It did not mention any potential damage from the fire. Iran’s defense ministry has long owned the biggest and oldest car battery factories in Iran.

Incidents at the country’s defense industry sites have increased in recent years, and Iran has blamed Israel for attacks or sabotage.

In August, Iran accused Israel of trying to sabotage its ballistic missile program through faulty foreign parts that could explode, damaging or destroying the weapons before they could be used.

In 2022, an explosion at a military and weapons development base east of Tehran called Parchin killed an engineer and wounded another.