Authorities claim there is no health hazard for people living close by.
Shortly before 20.30 on Monday evening, a major fire started at the C.I.O.S Group’s waste disposal facility in the Jankomir neighbourhood in Zagreb. According to reports, garbage has caught fire under still unclear circumstances. Numerous fire-fighting teams immediately went to the site and there are no injuries, reports Index.hr on May 2, 2017.
“Metal is burning, and such a situation is dangerous because it is difficult to extinguish such fires.” said a member of the Zagreb Fire Department.
“With regards to the C.I.O.S. fire, the Andrija Štampar Public Health Institute has conducted several measurements of the air quality close to the fire location, and it did not detect the presence of harmful gasses. As many as 135 fire-fighters with eleven vehicles went to the site. We kindly ask citizens not to stay in the smoke and to keep their doors and windows shut.” announced the City Office of Emergency Management on Monday evening.
C.I.O.S. says that the fire might have been intentionally started. Shortly before the fire started, one of the security guards saw a paraglider circling above the location where the fire broke out. “There are no injured persons. The cause is not yet known, but a security guard at the yard’s recycling centre saw a paraglider circling exactly above the location where the fire started. According to the security officer’s statement, the fire broke out at the very top of a stack of waste. Had the fire broken out in a more reachable place, it would have been extinguished by security guards, but smoke was noticed at an inaccessible peak, where it is not common for fires caused by self-ignition of the waste to start.” said the company in the statement.
On Tuesday morning, it was announced that the fire had been put under control. However, heavy white smoke can still be seen from many parts of the city.
