The buildings shuddered following the explosion of a gas-consuming storage water heater at around 5:45 in the morning. The blast shook the nearby area and shattered the glasses of the adjacent buildings. A total of 15 buildings were impacted.
The building which homed the mentioned water heater was a two-storied building in Poursina Street in Mashhad.
Upon being called to the scene, around 50 firefighters rushed to the accident spot. They taped off the area and immediately started rescue operation.
According to a fire brigade official, the homes in the neighborhood, apart from the three collapsed, have been damaged between 10 and 60 percent.
Hossein Heydari, the Deputy Attorney General of Khorasan Razavi Province, confirmed that the explosion was caused by gas-consuming storage water heater.
He added that most of the building in that neighborhood are poorly constructed and the high number of people residing in the collapsed building raised the death toll of the tragedy.
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