One dead in Bulgaria firework factory explosion

By Stoyan Nenov

ELIN PELIN, Bulgaria (Reuters) – One person was killed and another seriously injured when a blaze at a firework factory in Bulgaria set off a series of dramatic explosions late on Thursday, local officials and medical staff said.

The blasts began at around 6.30 p.m. in the town of Elin Pelin near the capital Sofia, sending mushroom clouds high into the evening sky, some flecked with the reds and whites of exploding fireworks.

“In the first moment I felt as if someone had closed the door with great fury. It rattled the windows. The power went off immediately,” one resident told Nova TV.

“I looked up and through the window I saw a beige mushroom cloud that began to spread to the east.”

Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov said on Thursday evening that a 49-year old man died of injuries sustained in the fire while his 20-year daughter is in critical condition in hospital.

Two men, a 22 year-old son of the warehouse owner and a 60-year-old employee, are believed to have been in the warehouse and remain unaccounted for, he said.

Residents told local media that smaller bangs continued through the night and into Friday morning. The area, surrounded by farmland, was cordoned off and military helicopters scanned the scene, a Reuters witness said.

Military personnel with four water carriers, as well as sappers and other military specialists were deployed on the site.

There were two tons of TNT equivalent in one of the warehouses, according to preliminary data, Bulgaria’s News Agency reported.