Upon receipt of a report of a fire and malfunction in the fireworks warehouse in Gara Elin Pelin, the Minister of Environment and Water immediately sent a team of the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water - Sofia (RIEW - Sofia) to the site.

To assess the impact of the fire on air quality, the mobile laboratory of the Executive Environmental Agency was dispatched to the village of Gara Elin Pelin, about 1 km from the warehouse, and will remain on site as long as necessary.

Preliminary data from the mobile laboratory collected in the last hours show the following:

Elevated levels of fine particulate matter (PM10) have been recorded. Against a daily standard average of 50 micrograms/m3, the hourly concentration was 55 micrograms/m3 at 1:00 a.m. after midnight, 85 mg/m3 at 3:00 a.m., 128 mg/m3 at 4:00 a.m. (the maximum measured value), while at 12:00 a.m. today 12 mg/m3 were recorded. Sufficient data has yet to be collected for the 24-hour period to make a final assessment.

No exceeding values for the hourly average standards for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone have been recorded.

No exceeding values for the eight-hour average standard for carbon dioxide were recorded.

The mobile station will continue to monitor air quality in the area and provide information on the current situation.

RIEW-Sofia has given instructions to the General Directorate of Fire Safety and Population Protection on safe zones and distances around the site of the accident. Due to the ongoing explosions, the inspection of the site is not yet possible.

The company-owner of the site, has been classified as an enterprise with low risk potential since 2017. It is inspected annually by order of the Minister of the Environment and Water by an interdepartmental committee composed of: chairman from the RIEW - Sofia and members from the Regional Fire Safety and Population Protection Service - Elin Pelin at the Regional Fire Safety and Population Protection Directorate - Sofia, Elin Pelin Municipality, the General Labour Inspectorate and Control of General Hazardous Means at the Ministry of Interior. Already yesterday the committee was informed about the accident and will carry out an inspection once they are admitted to the site by the Ministry of Interior.

Environment and Water Minister Petar Dimitrov personally supervised the situation and was on site until late at night.