On Wednesday night, a major fire broke out in a plastic landfill near Osijek in Croatia. Neighbors should not leave their houses. The extinguishing work could take days.
“The situation is very serious, it is a fire the likes of which we have never seen in the Osijek area,” Dragan Vulin, deputy head of civil protection for the city of Osijek, told Croatian television channel HTV. In Osijek, Croatia, a fire broke out in the plastic recycling factory “Drava International” on Wednesday night.
Several thousand square meters of plastic stored outdoors burned, and the fire also spread to the production facility. The fire is being extinguished by all available fire departments in the Osijek area and is still not under control. Vulin explained that the fire broke out about 40 minutes after midnight and that stored plastic outside burst into flames.
The residents of Osijek were warned via SMS via the “SRUUK early warning system” not to stay outdoors and not to leave their homes. “Plastic is burning, there are a lot of carcinogenic aerosols in the air, the wind is now carrying everything south towards Osijek,” warned Vulin. The cause of the fire is currently unknown and it has not yet been possible to bring the fire under control. The extinguishing work could take days.