site.btaAir Quality in Lyulin Improves After Waste Facility Fire

Air quality readings after the fire at a waste processing facility in Sofia's Lyulin borough are very good and have improved over the past 24 hours, Sofia Municipality Climate, Energy and Air Directorate Director Marin Marinov said at a briefing on Saturday.

Marinov said the air is currently clean, with readings far better than on a normal summer day and no trend of deterioration. Sofia Municipality will not take further measures or issue an advisory for vulnerable groups, he added.

Since Friday, data from the mobile monitoring station deployed at the site in Lyulin have shown isolated readings that pose no risk to the public. “They have been checked, validated and processed,” Marinov said. The smell reported by residents is due to firefighting efforts on Friday and may come from residual soot, but the data have improved every hour since Saturday morning, he explained.

Regarding elevated benzene levels in the area, Marinov said benzene had not reached concentrations higher than those usually recorded in the winter months. The only way to identify the location of the smoke plume from the fire is to track benzene readings, as they are the only indicators that can be monitored, he added.

Ivan Andriyanov, acting head of the Air Department at Sofia Municipality’s Climate, Energy and Air Directorate, also took part in the briefing.

The fire broke out on July 1 at a waste treatment facility operated by Ecobulpak. Firefighters found two plastic recycling warehouses ablaze, and six fire engines, a hazardous materials unit and an ambulance were sent to the scene. Ecobulpak said the likely cause was batteries or pressurized aerosol containers mixed in with incoming waste, and there were no injuries. The Environment Ministry later said air quality remained within legal limits after the fire.