Ghalibaf Refers to Plasco: I Entered at 200 Degrees to Find Anyone Alive

Despite requests from several city council members for the mayor of Tehran to apologize for the Plasco incident, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf once again rejected criticisms regarding the municipality's failure to prevent the incident and extinguish the fire in a timely manner. According to ISNA news agency, on Sunday, February 5, Ghalibaf stated in a Tehran city council meeting that the municipality only seals buildings 'to address construction violations and not for safety.' He mentioned that according to Article 101 of the Labor Law, the order to seal commercial centers is carried out after reports from inspectors of the Ministry of Labor and Health and with the prosecutor's order. He cited 'inefficiency in regulations and rules' as a primary reason for the Plasco incident and noted that unlike other cities in the country, crisis management in Tehran is the responsibility of the municipality, adding that if 'this inefficiency is not resolved, it is unlikely that an incident like Plasco will not happen again.' In response to criticisms about not taking action to find individuals trapped in the Plasco building's engine room, Ghalibaf stated: 'I personally entered from an angle that was dangerous and went in at a temperature of at least 200 degrees, grabbing hot iron to see if anyone was alive.' During the meeting, several city council members criticized Ghalibaf's statement that the municipality did not have the authority to seal dangerous commercial buildings, pointing out that the municipality had sealed around 300 buildings, including several schools, in previous years. Some council members, including Mohammad Mahdi Tondgouyan, also criticized Ghalibaf for blaming other organizations for the Plasco incident. According to Clause 14 of Article 55 of the Municipalities Law, the municipality is responsible for eliminating dangers from at-risk buildings, and if its orders are not executed by the owners of these buildings, the municipality will take action to eliminate the danger and will charge the owners for the costs incurred plus 15% damages. The owner of the Plasco building is the Foundation of the Oppressed, an economic institution under the supervision of the Supreme Leader, and in recent days, some news sources have claimed that the Tehran municipality refrained from sealing it for this reason. Meanwhile, some city council members have reported that the fire department only inspected the building 'once' and stated that 'the building's facilities are acceptable for crisis management, but it lacks a fire escape.' According to the Plasco building's trustees, the cost of constructing this escape was the responsibility of the owner, the Foundation of the Oppressed, and for this reason, the fire department's warning was issued to this foundation. Some city council members and Amir Hossein Abadi, head of the Bar Association, attributed the incident to the owner's 'negligence' in 'maintaining, repairing, or taking action regarding the property.' During the city council meeting, several members, including Ahmad Masjid Jamei, criticized the 'lack of fire department facilities,' the 'lack of expertise of the fire department's CEO,' and the 'absence of municipal managers in the early hours of the incident.' He also stated that the number of firefighters killed in the past two and a half years in Tehran has exceeded the number of firefighters killed during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the city. Some city council members also reported that the firefighters present at the incident lacked basic equipment such as radios and masks. Previously, several city council members had stated that the fire ladder only reached 11 floors, while the Plasco building was 17 floors high. In recent days, some websites reported that Saeed Sharifzadeh, the fire department's CEO, had previously been a manager in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and had no expertise in firefighting. However, the mayor of Tehran responded to these criticisms by stating that he has 75 months of command experience in the Iran-Iraq war and that the fire department 'most closely resembles military centers.' He emphasized that the fire department's CEO 'is a well-known individual in martial arts in terms of physical readiness.' Abdul Reza Rahmani Fazli, the Minister of Interior, stated on February 1 that the first group of firefighters arrived five minutes after the incident was reported, but due to a lack of necessary equipment, they left the site and returned after 15 minutes with the required equipment. Nevertheless, the mayor of Tehran rejected reports about the inadequacy of firefighting equipment. During the city council meeting, several conservative members defended the Tehran municipality against the criticisms from reformist members regarding its performance during the Plasco incident, emphasizing that until the reports from the committees formed by the city council president are submitted, the Tehran municipality should not be accused of management failure in the Plasco incident.