Almost two days after the tragic incident with the explosion of a boiler in a primary school in Serres, while teachers and students were in the school, resulting in the death of an 11-year-old child, a number of questions demand immediate answers.
Police experts went to the school on Tuesday morning to investigate the cause of the deadly explosion. So far, both the school principal and the mayor have denounced the project's contractor, citing incorrect parallel use of the two heating systems, namely the oil boiler that was not disconnected and the new geothermal system.
But when the issue comes down to its essence, namely who was responsible for the presence of the contractor at the school, one side blames the other, with the situation requiring immediate clarification.
At noon on Tuesday, the authorities proceeded to arrest the project contractor and an employee. Both were at the school and had overseen the construction process of the project.
They are being prosecuted for the offences of manslaughter by manslaughter, aggravated assault by manslaughter and explosion by manslaughter. The arrested, with the case file formed against them, will be brought to the Prosecutor of Serres.
It is noted that an investigation into the incident has been launched by the Ministry of Interior for any responsibilities from acts or omissions of local government officials.
Parallel accusations of responsibility
Speaking to SKAI, the mayor of Serres Alexandros Chrysafis accused the contractor of doing the work during class time without notifying anyone, while this is expressly forbidden by the contract between us. He also blamed the school principal for allowing the contractor to enter the school unit without the consent of the municipality.
"There is a contract with the contractor, which states that he cannot do work during school hours without the consent of the municipality and the principal. The contractor, while knowing his contractual obligations, nevertheless entered the school. And there is a question here: How did the principal let him into the school during school hours? There is a specific provision. No one knew, no one was informed by the municipality that he would do these jobs," said Chrysafis.
On the other hand, the school's principal, Nikos Tsiotsios, claims that he had sent the necessary documents to the authorities so that no work could be done during school hours, but only on weekends.
"A geothermal system for heating the building was recently installed at the school, through NSRF, in order to replace the oil boiler," Mr. Chiosiotsios told APE - MPE a few hours after the tragedy. He disagreed with the project as it was not a proposal of the school community.
"The boiler was until recently an oil boiler," he said. "There was a project done at the school district that I objected to. I disagreed many times about this project which was done under the responsibility of the city. We were not given a bill by anyone. It was a geothermal project that was done through ESPA as far as I know."
The school principal stresses that he contacted the relevant department several times asking for documents on the timing and execution of the project without any response. He further points out that while the project was supposed to be completed within a year, in the end, it was completed in two and a half and started operating in the last ten days but as he says "the word operating within quotation marks because the geothermal was not yet operational".
Experts note to ERT that logically the safety systems of the burner start and stop did not work, there was an explosion and the entire front of the boiler detached which also carried away the metal door that hit the unfortunate child.
The project that had started a year ago, under the responsibility of a contractor and supervised by the municipality of Serres, concerned the energy upgrade of the school using geothermal energy.
The old oil-fired boiler was the one that exploded, according to reports, after work on converting the heating system to geothermal.
Why the explosion happened
George Kotsanpapas, president of the Serres Burner Maintenance Association, and Evangelos Panos, energy inspector, spoke to ERT about the causes of the tragedy.
"Obviously, there was no proper isolation of the burner and the boiler so that the two systems started operating simultaneously, the hot water was trapped and the pressure rose and the explosion occurred," said Mr. Evangelos Gospanas to "Connections".
For his part, George Kotsanpapas confirmed that the contractor closed the valves of the oil boiler and did not isolate it so that the oil burner could not be lit.
"The energy was trapped inside the boiler room and this explosion occurred. This was something that the technician had to ensure that this bad thing didn't happen," said the president of the Serres Boiler Conservators. And as he pointed out, "the conversion of the boiler should have been done in the summer."
According to Kotsanpapas, "the geothermal system had been working for about a year but with problems."
"Vassilis that day did not want to go to school"
Meanwhile, the uncle of the 11-year-old boy who died made a revelation, speaking to MEGA.
The uncle said that on that tragic day his nephew had told his parents that he did not want to go to school. "Vasilis didn't want to go to school that day," he said."
"It is very difficult for the family and the parents as they have lost their child. It's an unbelievable event. All the family asks is that their son's death is not 'wasted' and from now on, the necessary safety measures are taken in schools. Every person should leave their child at school, it should be safe and such things should not happen," he added.
The uncle of the unfortunate child also said that his younger sister was also at the school, who saw the 11-year-old at the time he was taken to the ambulance.
Source: in.gr
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