Criminal investigation in the Crevedia case
Romanian prosecutors have taken the first decisions in the case of the powerful blasts at an LPG station in southern Romania.
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Ştefan Stoica, 06.09.2023, 14:00
The two owners of the LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) station in Crevedia (southern Romania), where powerful blasts occurred on August 26, taking lives and injuring people, most of them firefighters, were detained on Tuesday, after the first hearings at the General Prosecutor’s Office. The owners and their company are accused of aggravated criminal damage. Dozens of houses near the LPG station were destroyed, as well as equipment, installations and their components, consequences that the two owners did not anticipate, although they should and could have.
According to the prosecutors, between September 30, 2020 and August 26, 2023, the company operated illegally the station in Crevedia, whose license had been suspended. This created the premises for the fire to break out on August 26, followed by several explosions. The second blast took firefighters by surprise, who were on the site after the first explosion, which explains the large number of injured rescuers. Their number and that of injured civilians would have been higher if the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations had not ordered the evacuation of civilians and the use of robots to cool the tanks, according to the head of the Department for Emergency Situations, Raed Arafat.
In parallel with the investigation launched by the General Prosecutor’s Office, which looks into the cause of the explosions, three more investigations are under way – one by the Military Prosecutor’s Office, which investigates the way in which the firefighters intervened, and two by the National Anti-corruption Directorate, related to possible abuse of office in the procedure of licensing the LPG station. As prosecutors found, the fuel station continued to operate after its activity had been suspended, in 2020.
The authorities ordered extensive checks at LPG stations and gas stations across the country, which have surfaced 2000 deficiencies. Five people died following the blasts in Crevedia. One Romanian patient, a 28-yearl old firefighter from Bucharest, treated at Graz University Hospital in Austria has returned safely to the country. Other patients are treated in medical units in Belgium, Italy, Austria, Germany and Norway. Family members are allowed to accompany patients in the hospitals where they are treated, both in Romania and abroad and the Romanian Government has decided they will receive financial support for this purpose. (EE)
