Iran is on fire — literally, again — and nobody knows why. A massive power plant and a “cardboard factory” caught fire bigly in Iran over the weekend. But there is impressive new video of Iran’s port explosion from last week.
Iran International reported that a “series of incidents unfolded in Alborz Province, west of Tehran, on Saturday evening, including two fires, reports of an explosion, and a magnitude 4.0 earthquake, according to official statements and eyewitness accounts.”
Israeli action? Typical authoritarian regime attention to maintenance issues? God just doesn’t like the Mullahs’ regime? Who knows.
For reasons yet unknown, the Montazer Ghaem power plant in Karaj, just west of Tehran, caught fire on Saturday. Here’s that video:
Fire reported at the Montazer Ghaem power plant near Karaj, west of Tehran. No official confirmation or known cause yet.
Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/nP2HX5j3Xe
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) May 3, 2025
Those cooling towers make Montazer Ghaem look like it might be a nuclear power plant, but it burns natural gas and other fossil fuels.
Tehran posted undated video of the plant not on fire and claimed that there was nothing to see here, move along.
In the same province, also on Saturday, a “cardboard manufacturing factory” was seen burning brightly.
A large fire engulfed a cardboard manufacturing factory in Nazarabad, west of Tehran province, on Saturday evening, according to videos obtained by Iran International.
Footage from the scene shows heavy flames and thick plumes of smoke rising from the facility. As of now, there… pic.twitter.com/c03cDK4KdH— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) May 3, 2025
Does anybody buy “cardboard factory”? It feels a bit like that weekend I spent claiming to be the Pope of Siam.
This follows close on the heels of last week’s explosion at the port of Bandar Abbas, seen below on just-released security footage.
Fresh security footage from the port of Bandar Abbas captures the outbreak of the fire and the moment of the explosion that killed 70 and injured more than 1200 people.
The Iranian people will feel the pain for weeks and maybe months. pic.twitter.com/9cNOX4juRo
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 29, 2025
Bandar Abbas “handles approximately 85–90% of Iran’s container traffic and over half of its total trade volume,” and the damage is estimated at around $3 billion — with additional, unquantified but presumably significant losses to Iran’s trade. Seventy people were reported killed and more than 1,200 injured in the big badda boom.
On a side note, the Houthis got lucky on Sunday and scored a missile hit near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, wounding several travelers. “Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
And Another Thing: Curiously, Reuters again used “softening” language to report the attack. “A missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels towards Israel” instead of “A missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels at Israel.” It’s like the old gag I’ve used for years: “I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing towards you.” There’s no difference except that A) one sounds slightly nicer and B) Reuters uses the slightly nicer formulation for terrorists.
Israel’s missile defenses failed to intercept the Houthi missile due to a “technical issue with the interceptor,” according to the IDF.
These things happen.
The thing to take away from the latest news is that whatever the hell is going on in Iran, it isn’t over yet.
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