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Bulgaria tightens railway safety after train fire
06 Mar 2008 15:09:20 GMT
 Source: Reuters
SOFIA, March 6 (Reuters) - Bulgaria will ban smoking and flammable items on trains and upgrade emergency procedures after a fire swept through two sleeper carriages last week, killing nine people, the Transport minister said on Thursday.

The fire which began on Feb. 28 was the worst railway incident in Bulgaria since 1992. It has provoked debate about safety standards at state railway company BDZ and prompted calls for Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev to resign.

Police are investigating the cause of the fire and prosecutors said they did not rule out anything.

Mutafchiev told parliament the fire was most likely started by flammable items in the compartment where it began.

"This is not a usual train accident, this is a tragic fire, which occurred in a very short space of time and claimed lives. We have never had such a terrible incident in our railway history," Mutafchiev, who has not ruled out resigning, told parliament.

To improve security, he announced new measures including a ban on all smoking on trains, tighter control of luggage and informing passengers what to do in case of emergencies, the Transport Ministry said in a statement.

Sixty-two people were in the two coaches when the fire broke out as the train travelled from the capital Sofia to the northern town of Kardam.

Some survivors said the train lacked enough working fire-extinguishers and that railway workers failed to unlock some carriage doors.

BDZ head Oleg Petkov has defended railway safety standards and said initial investigations showed railway staff acted professionally.

But Mutafchiev said railway staff should be better educated about how to act in case of emergencies. He also ordered the development of a new system for locking and unlocking sleeper train doors and keeping a record of passenger names.

Opposition parties have accused the government of neglecting train safety at BDZ.

The number of passengers served by the ailing state railway operator has dropped to about 35 million a year from more than 110 million in the early 1990s, mainly due to declining quality.

The last big railway incident in Bulgaria was in 1992, when 10 people died after their train collided with a cargo train.

Many European Union countries ban smoking on public transport but there is no EU-wide ban, it is up to member states to decide that policy. (Reporting by Anna Mudeva, editing by Mary Gabriel)


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A man protests with a sign reading "Stop the genocide" during a rally of workers from Bulgaria's largest steelmaker Kremikovtzi in central Sofia January 31, 2008. Some 2,000 workers at loss-making ...


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Last updated:Thu Mar 6 15:08:28 2008