site.btaFire near Stara Zagora Completely under Control

A fire in the Sedmi Kilometar area near Stara Zagora is completely under control, the Regional Governor of Stara Zagora, Dr. Nedelcho Marinov, told BTA. He said that the night passed peacefully, there were teams on duty the whole time, extinguishing individual fires, and currently there are still three teams on site.

The Regional Governor assessed the coordination between the institutions as excellent. There was an extremely good and effective synchronization, he commented. Dr. Marinov congratulated the Regional Directorate for Fire Safety and Population Protection for its good work and thanked the other institutions for their quick and adequate response. He noted that the directorate's readiness is not just up to par, but perhaps above the average for the country.

Between 15 and 20 buildings were destroyed in the fire, but there is still no official data on the material damage. The causes of the fire are also being investigated, with one of the main versions being worked on being human negligence, but nothing concrete can be said at the moment, the Regional Governor also said. He stressed that it is time for society to stop behaving irresponsibly.

Marinov recalled that the past week was extremely difficult for the fire brigades in the region. Among the severe situations is the fire in the village of Obruchishte in the Galabovo region, in which about 400 hectares of mixed areas were destroyed, and properties were also affected.

The fire in the Sedmi Kilometar area near Stara Zagora broke out at around 3 pm om Sunday in a villa area with over 300 houses, of which between 15 and 20 burned down. Thanks to the quick intervention of the police and fire brigades, around 1,000 people were evacuated and no one was injured. Fourteen fire brigades from Stara Zagora, Plovdiv and Sliven, as well as a helicopter from the Krumovo air base, took part in the extinguishing. A partial state of emergency was declared.

Over the past week, fire brigades have responded to 106 reports of accidents, compared to 61 for the same period last year, the regional administration told BTA. There were 48 fires without casualties, and 56 traffic accidents and emergency activities or support operations. In addition to Sunday's fire in the Sedmi Kilometar area, there were severe fires in the village of Obruchishte in Galabovo, the village of Polski Gradets in Radnevo and the village of Hrishteni in Stara Zagora.