People in "Elenite" were warned, but the wave came unexpectedly for everyone. This was said on the air of "Sabû se" by Chief Commissioner Alexander Dzhartov - Director of the General Directorate "Fire Safety and Population Protection"
“At this stage, we have no information about people who need help anywhere in the country. The most critical was in "Elenite". Colleagues worked until late to be able to evacuate everyone who was potentially in danger. Work continues there to clear and secure the settlements," explained Dzhartov.
“We evacuated about 100 people throughout the country, mainly in "Elenite". The other place that required evacuation was Tsarevo. Given the high waters that were entering, some people were worried about being flooded. In 2023, there was a severe flood there, so they were evacuated mainly for preventive purposes,” he said.
According to him, there were difficulties with the evacuation of some people in "Elenite", but those working in the field did an excellent job.
“Over the past 24 hours, we worked on over 400 signals. 340 of them were related to responding to severe weather conditions. It was mainly about removing objects and dangerous trees that had fallen. Everything else was related to evacuation, drainage and securing buildings,” commented Dzhartov.
”At this stage, the teams in the field are relatively small. Today they will be mainly concentrated in "Elenite", said the chief commissioner.
"The evacuated people were accommodated in complexes on site, as well as in municipal facilities, so that they have good conditions, water and food are provided. When I went, the situation was extremely difficult. It turned out that we had a second wave after the first, which caused severe damage. There was also extremely intense rainfall, but after the second wave there was no immediate danger. Despite this, the colleagues remained on site," he shared.
According to Dzhartov, the material damage is yet to be assessed, but it is certainly significant. "A commission, which is appointed by the mayor of the municipality, will tour the entire affected area and assess the damage. It's mainly cars, but there is infrastructure and buildings affected".
The fire chief said that on Friday there was no danger of buildings collapsing, but today they will be assessed again just in case.
According to him, the people in "Elenite" were warned, but the wave came unexpectedly for everyone. "At 11:00, the situation in the Burgas region began to normalize, but around 11:20 we started receiving messages on 112 from citizens who saw an extremely high wave that prevented their evacuation and endangered them. Then the regional governor activated BG-Alert to warn people," explained Dzhartov.