Investigators began looking into two explosions that occurred at an unauthorised liquefied petroleum gas filling station over the weekend, north of Bucharest, Romania, leaving two people dead and 56 wounded. Firefighters who went to the station in the Crevedia commune to put out the fire from the first explosion before the second one happened late Saturday were the majority of those hurt.
“The fire started while gas was transferred from one tanker to another. A source of fire appeared under one of the tankers,” general prosecutor Alex Florenta stated in a press conference on Sunday.
“Speculations include that a cigarette was carelessly thrown,” he further added.
According to emergency department chief Raed Arafat, the two fatalities were a couple. According to Arafat, 39 firefighters, two police officers, and two gendarmes were among the injured, some of whom had severe burns.
The army ministry reported that the four were sent to Belgium or Italy. According to Janez Lenarcic, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Romania has asked for help from the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to treat 18 burn sufferers. X was originally known as Twitter.
After a check revealed various anomalies, the petrol station’s firm lost its authorization to operate in July 2020, according to Florenta.
Following closure, the owners designated the petrol station’s yard as a parking area for the business’ tankers, but the station’s staff disagreed and “continued to make several operations of gas transfer from one tank to another or to other devices,” he mentioned.
Despite having been recruited on paper at another location of the corporation, four Nepalese were employed there.
“I’m profoundly saddened that the explosions in Crevedia resulted in victims,” President Klaus Iohannis penned down on Facebook, stating it a “tragedy”.
There have been several outbursts of anger in the EU member state due to a lack of institutional control to guarantee adherence to safety requirements. After fireworks were let off in a Bucharest nightclub in 2015, a fire broke out, killing 64 people.
