Unrelated image shared as explosion at Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s warehouse

What’s the claim?

An image of smoke billowing from a building is circulating on social media with the claim that it shows an attack on an Iranian Revolutionary Guard warehouse in Iran’s Saveh. An X  (formerly Twitter) user shared the image with the caption in Arabic stating, “Urgent, Sawa city, Iran. A mysterious explosion rocks one of the warehouses of the terrorist Iranian Revolutionary Guard at the Kosha Novin Pars factory (roughly translated).” Archived versions of such posts can be found here, here, and here.

Screenshot of claims made online. (Source: X/ Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this image dates back to June 2023 and has no relation to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard warehouse in Iran.

What we found

After conducting a reverse image search on Google Images, we discovered news articles confirming the photo is from 2023. It shows a fire that broke out at a polyethylene plastic warehouse in Isfahan, Iran. Mehr News, an Iranian government news agency, released video footage capturing the incident from a different angle. We matched the visuals in the video cover image to the viral image.

Comparison showing the viral image and the 2023 warehouse fire at the Hyplast company. (Source: X/Mehr News Agency)

Furthermore, Rokna News Agency, an Iranian news outlet, published a report featuring various images from the incident. Among them, we identified a more distinct and magnified picture resembling the viral one.

According to the Tasnim news agency from Isfahan, the incident resulted in three individuals sustaining minor burns, and an additional 20 people suffered injuries from smoke and gas exposure. However, the cause of the fire was not established at that time.

As of early January 2024, no news reports or official statements indicate that a warehouse owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was attacked or caught fire in Saveh, Iran.

Tensions between the United States and Iran have been ongoing for years and have heightened since October 2023, following Hamas’s attack on Israel. The U.S., expressing strong support for Israel and backed by military aid, faced retaliatory attacks from Iran-backed militant groups in Syria and Iraq. According to CBS News' latest update as of January 20, 2024, Iranian-backed rebels have launched 144 attacks on U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq since the recent Israel-Hamas conflict.

The verdict

The image of a fire at Hyplast Company in Morche Khort industrial town in Isfahan has been shared with the claim that it shows an Iranian Revolutionary Guard warehouse on fire. Therefore, we have marked this claim false.