A fire that broke out on Saturday afternoon in an open area filled with old tyres at a processing centre for Vasilikos, was brought under control before midnight, the interior ministry said.
Firefighters, civil defence and other state services remained in the area throughout the night, the ministry said. Residents in the area were still being urged to stay indoors and avoid unnecessary travel due to the heavy smoke that permeated nearby villages.
The director of the environment department, Costas Hadjipanayiotou, who was at the scene on Saturday afternoon said it appeared the fire was caused by a malfunction in a tyre shredder that ignited the spark that led to the blaze.
Hadjipanayiotou said the tyres were there in accordance with the required permits.
Thousands of tonnes of soil along with foam extinguisher were being piled on to the burning tyres to try and put the flames out.
The fire broke out shortly after 2pm.
Only last year, the audit office revealed that a company being paid to process massive quantities of used car tyres for Vasilikos was failing to do so.
In a tweet on Saturday, the audit office said it had pointed out the risk of fire from the accumulation of large quantities of tyres in that very area “at a time when some people collect fees to process the tyres”. There had been another fire involving tyres in the same area in the past, the tweet said.
In its report last year, the audit office said that used car tyres located near the Vassiliko cement works plant, close to Mari, had not been processed, despite a company being paid to do so. These tyres had also been included in the quantities Cyprus put in its report to the European Commission as having been processed, the audit office said.
Vassiliko cement works plant is the main management and processing unit for used tyres and it uses these tyres as a source of energy for its operational needs.
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Mail
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Mail
Source
