ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A fire at an oil refinery in Kawergosk subdistrict northwest of Erbil city killed three workers and injured two more on Thursday, Erbil’s civil defense directorate spokesperson has said.

The fire took place at around 10 am, in a section of the refinery that produces benzene. The refinery belongs to domestic energy giant Kar Group.

Sarkawt Karrash, spokesperson for Erbil’s civil defense directorate, told Rudaw that three Kar Group employees – Ahmed Sadullah, Masoud Mohammed, and engineer Sahr Narzina – died in the incident, and two others were injured.

The cause of the fire remains unknown, Karrash said, but safety conditions at the refinery were of "international standards."

“I want to clarify that it [the refinery] has a safety engineer and their own firefighting team … The refinery has all safety measures,” Karrash said.

An employee of the company who works at the refinery but spoke on the condition of anonymity told Rudaw that the fire was extinguished in 20 minutes.

Fires at refineries in the Kurdistan Region that operate to international standards are rare.

However, fires at illegal oil refineries in the Kurdistan Region are far more frequent. In the latest such incident, a blacksmith from Bokan in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province died in a fire at an illegal oil refinery in Duhok province last Thursday.

Rudaw