Top image: Tehran skyline from Tabiat Bridge (file photo; does not show the fire). Photo: Mhsheikholeslami, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
A large fire sent thick smoke over western Tehran on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. Social media accounts said the blaze was at the Mehr Darou pharmaceutical plant on the Tehran–Karaj road. Tehran’s fire department gave a different account: it said the smoke came from a building under construction. The cause of the fire is unknown, and no deaths or injuries have been reported.
Latest updates
- 11:45 a.m. ET: The fire department’s spokesman, Jalal Maleki, gave more detail to Shahr, the Tehran city government’s news agency. He said the fire was reported at 4 p.m. Tehran time (8:30 a.m. ET) at a factory at kilometer 10 of the Karaj Special Road, heading west. On the factory grounds, he said, a two-story building in the final stage of construction caught fire while workers were on site; it held building supplies, including Styrofoam, and the flames spread to its composite facade, which caused the heavy smoke. He said four fire stations and a water tanker responded, the fire was out and no one was hurt. That differs from his first account, which said no one was inside. Maleki did not name the factory. Separately, Shahrara News, a site owned by the city of Mashhad, reported at 6:11 p.m. Tehran time (10:41 a.m. ET) that the Mehr Darou factory had caught fire, citing no source. Kilometer 10 is Mehr Darou’s listed address, but no official has named the company, and the cause of the fire is still unknown.
- 11:35 a.m. ET: Tehran’s fire department gave a fuller account. Spokesman Jalal Maleki told IMNA, a news agency run by Isfahan’s city government, that the fire was in a building under construction near kilometer 10 of the Karaj Special Road (the Tehran–Karaj road), heading west. He said four fire stations were sent, the fire was put out, and no one was hurt or killed. He said the fire gave off a lot of smoke. IMNA published the report at 6:40 p.m. Tehran time (11:10 a.m. ET). Kilometer 10 of the Tehran–Karaj road is the address Mehr Darou lists for its plant, but Maleki did not name a company, and TBR could not confirm what the building was. Anonymous accounts on X kept saying the fire hit a Mehr Darou raw-materials warehouse; that has not been verified. Unverified claim, anonymous X accounts (anonymous social media account)
What we know about the Tehran fire
Open Source Intel (@Osint613), an anonymous account on X, posted video of the fire at 10:38 a.m. ET (2:38 p.m. UTC). It wrote: “A major fire has broken out at the Mehr Darou pharmaceutical facility along the Tehran Karaj highway. The cause remains unknown.” Unverified claim, Open Source Intel (@Osint613) (anonymous social media account) The 19-second video shows a large column of dark smoke. Its location has not been independently verified.
Other accounts on X said the same thing. One open-source account, @hey_itsmyturn, first linked the smoke to the nearby Minoo plant and then said it was Mehr Darou instead. It posted coordinates (35.717, 51.228) that match the plant’s listed location. Unverified claim, @hey_itsmyturn (anonymous social media account) No major international news agency had confirmed the location when this story was published.
IRAN: Tehran: A major fire has broken out at the Mehr Darou pharmaceutical facility along the Tehran Karaj highway.
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 29, 2026
The cause remains unknown.
Video: Open Source Intel (@Osint613) on X. The video’s location has not been independently verified.
What Tehran’s fire department said
Jalal Maleki, the spokesman for Tehran’s fire department, said the smoke seen in the sky over western Tehran came from a fire in a building under construction on Shahid Lashkari Expressway. He said no one had been inside and that firefighters were putting the fire out. Tasnim reported his comments at 5:10 p.m. Tehran time (9:40 a.m. ET). Unverified claim, Tasnim (IRGC-affiliated) Tejarat News and other Iranian sites carried the same statement.
Shahid Lashkari Expressway runs west from Tehran toward Karaj, the same corridor where Mehr Darou lists its factory. The fire department’s statement did not name a company or say what was being built. TBR could not confirm whether the “building under construction” and the site in the social media posts are the same place.
What is Mehr Darou?
Mehr Darou (also written Mehrdarou) is a Tehran drug maker founded in 1956, according to a directory of Iranian drug companies published by Iran’s pharmaceutical industry syndicate. The directory says the plant sits at kilometer 10 of the Tehran–Karaj road. It says the company makes generic tablets and capsules and is one of Iran’s largest makers of controlled drugs, including buprenorphine and methadone, which are used to treat addiction. The directory lists production capacity of 500 million tablets, 300 million coated tablets and 200 million capsules a year. The company has made no public statement about the fire that TBR could find.
Context: a string of fires in western Tehran
The fire comes amid the 2026 Iran war, after months of strikes and blasts in and around the capital. Smoke over western Tehran has repeatedly caused alarm. Iran International reported this month on a fuel-tank explosion and vehicle fire in Karaj on Oct. 23, which the Karaj fire chief blamed on a traffic accident. Accounts on X also reported fires near Mehrabad Airport on Oct. 25 and Oct. 28. No official source has linked Thursday’s fire to any attack, and TBR has seen no evidence of one.
For more on Iran, see our Iran news hub, our report on Iran’s claims about mines in the Strait of Hormuz, and a UN expert’s warning about Iran’s wartime crackdown.
What is still unconfirmed
- Whether the fire is at the Mehr Darou plant or at another building on the same road.
- What caused it.
- Whether anyone was hurt, and how big the damage is.
This story will be updated as officials or independent outlets release more information.
Sources
- IMNA: Tehran fire department follow-up report on the west Tehran building fire, Oct. 29, 2026
- Open Source Intel (@Osint613), post and video on X, Oct. 29, 2026
- Tasnim: Tehran fire department spokesman on the smoke in western Tehran (Persian) (IRGC-affiliated)
- Tejarat News: same statement (Persian)
- Iranian Pharmaceutical Companies Directory: Mehr Darou profile
- Iranian Pharmaceutical Companies Directory: Mehr Darou production lines
- Eyes of Iran / Iran International: vehicle fire in Karaj, Oct. 23, 2026
- Shahr (Tehran municipality news agency): fire department spokesman on the Karaj Special Road factory fire
- Shahrara News: report naming the Mehr Darou factory
Additional sources
- @hey_itsmyturn posts on X identifying the site
- Shin: fire reported near Mehrabad Airport, Oct. 28, 2026
Read next in Iran
Most read this week
- Wu Proposes Restaurant Zoning Changes to Cut Takeout Reviews
- Elected School Committee, 311 Review on Council’s Oct. 28 Agenda
- Christopher St. Plan in Fields Corner Cut to 99 Apartments
- Boston City Council Asks Congress to Restore Public Housing Funds
- Boston Approves $31.5M in Tax Abatements to Restart 1,400 Homes
Latest
- Far-Right Protesters Clash With Police in Madrid Over Spain Train Crash, Target Sánchez
- Flagship Merges Cellarity, Etiome and Empress Into AI Biotech Etcelera
- Celtics Owners Give $200 Million to Boston Children’s, a Hospital Record
- Biogen Q3 Revenue Jumps 11% to $2.8B as Apellis Drugs Offset MS Slide
- Patriots vs. Dolphins Preview: Odds, Injuries and How to Watch Week 8