Two explosions at a petrol station outside the Romanian capital of Bucharest have left one dead and 57 injured. Lacking a specialised burn unit, two patients have been transferred to Brussels.
Romania was rocked by two explosions on Saturday evening at an LPG filling station in the municipality of Crevedia. The huge explosions, 700 metres in radius, caused serious injuries to civilians, and later firefighters who attempted to tackle the blaze. The fire was only brought under control early on Sunday morning.
Several victims suffered severe burns. Romania, lacking facilities to treat serious burn victims, decided to evacuate several victims to specialist hospitals in Italy, Austria, Norway, Germany, and in the Brussels municipality of Neder-over-Heembeek.
Romania authorities called upon the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to help coordinate the relief and provide emergency care for the severely injured firefighters and civilians, according to European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič.
“We have the materials best suited to treat those wounds,” Thomas Rose, head of the burn unit at the Neder-over-Heembeek, told VRT Nieuws. “We also have the infrastructure– beds, baths– and, of course, the know-how. That’s the most important thing: we know how to treat those wounds. In Romania, they have this, but the expertise that we know in Belgium does not yet exist.”
The public prosecutor’s office in Romania has launched an investigation into the explosions.
