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Plasco Building

Plasco Building
Istanbul intc.jpg
Plasco Building in 2011
General information
Status Destroyed
Type Residential, light industrial commercial building shopping center restaurant
Location Tehran, Iran
Coordinates 35°41′41″N 51°25′15″E / 35.69472°N 51.42083°E / 35.69472; 51.42083Coordinates: 35°41′41″N 51°25′15″E / 35.69472°N 51.42083°E / 35.69472; 51.42083
Construction started 1960
Completed 1962
Opened 1962
Destroyed 19 January 2017
Height
Roof 42.0 m (138 ft)
Technical details
Floor count 17
2017 Plasco Building collapse
Plasco collapsed Tasnim.jpg
Ruins of the building after the collapse
Time 11:20 local time (07:50 GMT)
Date 19 January 2017
Location Tehran, Iran
Deaths 20 (Official statistics; As of 26 January 2017, 22:33 local time)
Non-fatal injuries 230 (Tehran Emergncy Medical Service official statistics; As of 26 January 2017, 21:34 local time)
Missing 1 (Iran Police official estimate; announced 24 February 2017, 11:13 local time)

The Plasco Building (Persian: ساختمان پلاسکو‎, translit. Sakhteman-e Pelasko‎) was a 17-story high-rise landmark building in Tehran, the capital city of Iran. At the time of its construction in the 1960s it was the tallest building in Iran, and was considered an iconic part of the Tehran skyline. The building collapsed on 19 January 2017 during a skyscraper fire.

The Plasco building was built in 1962 by the prominent businessman Habib Elghanian, during a decade of rapid growth in Iran. The building was named after his plastics company. At the time of its construction it was the tallest building in Iran, and was considered an iconic landmark of the Tehran skyline, representing the drive for modernization under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

After the 1979 Iranian revolution, Habib Elghanian was executed by the new government, which seized the building and handed ownership of it to the state-controlled Islamic Revolution Mostazafan Foundation, tied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The Mostazafan Foundation operated the building until its collapse.

At the time of the fire, the Plasco building was used as a residential and commercial building, with a major shopping center on its ground floor, a restaurant on its upper floor, and several clothing workshops.

On 19 January 2017, a fire started on the ninth floor at around 07:50 local time (04:20 GMT). The building was occupied at the time by its residents, workers at the garment shops, and various tour groups that were being shown around the building. Ten fire brigades arrived to fight the blaze. The combined brigades had been trying to stop the fire for hours—while assuring that the building had been evacuated—when the building's north wall collapsed without warning, leading to the collapse of the rest of the building a few moments later. The collapse was captured on camera by Iran's state-run Press TV, which was filming the firefighting efforts.


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