Tehran Fire Brigade Found Guilty Of Two Deaths

More than a year after the death of two women in a fire on January 19, 2014, the  judiciary found the Tehran Fire Brigade guilty for the casualties.

“Based on the judiciary’s verdict, the Tehran Fire Brigade was found guilty of the deaths of two female employees at a tailoring workshop on Jomhuri Street in Tehran,” said Fatemeh Daneshvar, a member of the Tehran Islamic City Council. ”Nasrin Foroutani, 44, and Azar Haqnazri, 60, died in a fire that broke out in January 2014.”

When the incident went viral online, including posts of photographs and videos of the fire, it caused a wave of outrage directed at the fire brigade and the local council.

During the city council’s 160^th session, Daneshvar explained that the victims lost their lives “due to outdated, worn-out facilities and equipment at the fire station,” reported the Islamic Students’ News Agency.

Daneshvar added that a bill was being drafted that would require the fire brigade’s facilities to be revised and improved and that would provide firefighters with additional training.

“Now that the cause of the incident is known, the city council has a duty to improve the quality of the fire station’s facilities,” she said.

Despite criticism, the Tehran Fire Brigade has defended its actions on the day of the fire.

“The two women from the tailoring workshop hung out of the window on the fifth floor,” said a spokesman for the fire brigade on the day. “But they fell and lost their lives because they weren’t strong enough to hold on.”

Using ladders, firefighters successfully saved the lives of every other person in the building on the day of the fire.

After 16 months, the general prosecutor’s office has decided to hold the fire brigade to account, although it has failed to charge a specific person with the failure to protect the lives of the two workers.

Read the original article in Persian