Tehran building collapse

From The New York Times, an article (with the usual unbloggable Times video) by Thomas Erdbrink and Dan Bilefsky about a Tehran, Iran building collapse in which at least twenty firefighters were killed:

One of the Iranian capital's oldest and most prominent skyscrapers crumpled into a smoldering heap as millions watched on television. The scene unspooled as if in a disaster film: as firefighters fought to control a blaze in one of Tehran’s most prominent high-rise buildings, the structure suddenly collapsed in a smoldering heap of wreckage, while millions watched on Iranian state television.
The state-run channel PressTV said that at least twenty firefighters were confirmed dead and that dozens of people could be trapped beneath the rubble. But other local news agencies said that as many as fifty firefighters and shopkeepers could have been inside the building when it collapsed.
“It was total chaos, there was dust, there were people everywhere. No one knew what to do,” said Nasim Khakpour, a Teheran resident who had gone to buy a guitar for her brother in the area.
Firefighters had battled the blaze for several hours as police officers tried to shoo away shopkeepers trying to return to collect their valuables, PressTV reported. Then came the collapse. As the building fell, a television journalist reporting in front of the building suddenly raised his voice. Onlookers could be heard gasping and shrieking. Several firefighters burst into tears.
“They had been trying to put out the fire for hours when suddenly the building just collapsed,” said Ibrahim Najafi, a cosmetics seller, who could see the building crashing down from his shop window. He said there were six hundred stores, offices, and warehouses in the building. “My friends are in there. What a horrible day.”
People at the scene were visibly upset, and the police were required to control angry crowds who yelled at security forces, saying they had arrived too late. “My friend is calling me from under the rubble, help him,” one man was heard shouting.
In the chaotic aftermath of the collapse, ambulances had to fight their way through onlookers drawn to the scene, some taking selfies in front of the rubble. Army conscripts were deployed to clear paths for the emergency vehicles.
The high-rise, the seventeen-story Plasco Building in the center of Tehran, housed a shopping center and garment manufacturers, and it was as familiar to most residents as the Empire State Building is in New York City.
Built in 1962 by Habib Elghanian, an Iranian-Jewish businessman, and named for his plastics-manufacturing company, it was Tehran’s first modern high-rise and long stood as a symbol of the drive for modernization during the reign of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. After the 1979 revolution, Elghanian was accused of spying for Israel and was executed.
Firefighters said the blaze appeared to have started in the morning on the eleventh floor before spreading to a floor below, trapping some of their colleagues inside. Firefighters on the ground stared upward as the fire advanced, apparently horrified by the predicament faced by those in the building. Two of them comforted a colleague, his face ashen, as he knelt, pointing at the building.
The choreography of the structure’s collapse played out with cinematic inevitability. First, one side of the building crashed, just missing a firefighter standing on a ladder, The Associated Press reported. Then the rest came down.
So dense were the plumes of smoke that Jalal Maleki, a spokesman for Tehran’s fire brigade, told The Associated Press that the cloud was “visible from the southern parts of Tehran”, miles away.
Masoumeh Abad, a member of the Tehran City Council, said tenants of the building had been warned “at least twenty times” that maintenance was needed, the semiofficial news agency Fars reported. But local news outlets suggested that the municipality had been lax in carrying out safety regulations.
The Plasco Building had been fully stocked with garments for the Iranian New Year on 21 March 2017, for which Iranians traditionally shop for new clothes, and there were reports that the clothing had choked the hallways, impeding the work of firefighters.

Rico says no one is braver than firemen, but it seems Elghanian got his revenge...