DUBAI – A major fire that broke out on Wednesday at an oil refinery in the Iranian capital was brought under control on Thursday, but is still not completely extinguished.

The fires have subsidized considerably, said Hamed Armanfar, CEO of the refinery. Armanfar told state media IRIN on Thursday that “the volume of the fires has decreased significantly from before, and now only five percent of the original fires remain,” adding that the firefighters’ efforts had succeeded in preventing the fire to spread to other tanks. .

The head of Tehran’s provincial crisis management office said “a gas pipeline leak at the facility started the blaze,” Reuters reported. The cause of the fire will be investigated, Mansour Darajati added, according to Reuters.

No casualties were reported at the scene, Shaker Khafaei, public relations manager of Tehran Oil Refining Co., which operates the refinery, told the state-run IRINN news agency. Khafaei also ruled out the possibility of sabotage.

Videos posted on social media on Wednesday showed thick smoke circulating in the south of the Iranian capital.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said all operations had been suspended at the facility, known as the Tondgooyan refinery, Reuters reported.

Some 18 tankers at the refinery caught fire on Wednesday, according to the state-run Young Journalists Club (YJC).

This incident came just hours after one of the biggest Iranian navy ships caught fire and sank on Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman.

The “Khark”, a huge training and logistics ship, was set on fire early Wednesday morning, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. But after 20 hours of an “all-out” rescue effort, the ship sank off Iran’s southern port of Jask, Fars said in his report.

All crew members were evacuated and there were no casualties, he added. – CNN with contributions from agencies