Two people still unaccounted for after the fire in fireworks warehouses near Elin Pelin

Loud rumbling bang was heard in the area of Elin Pelin last night, July 25. People were scared, they did not know what was happening.

Fireworks warehouses near Elin Pelin have been burning for 5 hours

"I thought a plane was falling, to be honest, it was a very loud bang, and I got scared," Nikolai Stoyanov said.

Not long after, it became clear that the bang had come from a complex with six fireworks warehouses, which are located less than a kilometre away from the last houses of the village of Gara Elin Pelin and about two and a half kilometres from the town of Elin Pelin, near sofia, Western Bulgaia. The first explosion reverberated yesterday at about 18:20 in a warehouse at the beginning of the complex.

"I am the person who reported the incident at 18:25. Because I am a former employee of the regional police station, I called directly the police station, maybe in 5-6 minutes the police came, after about 2-3 minutes the fire fighters came, immediately after it the ambulance arrived," said Rumen Kerimov.

After the end of the working hours, a security guard, associate professor Peter Shishkov, his 20-year-old daughter, the owner's 22-year-old son and a 60-year-old company employee stayed in the warehouse. After the first explosion, the security guard was the first to rush to help the injured.

"He proceeded to the site of the blast and managed to literally drag out the girl and the man, subsequently 6 firefighters took a huge risk for their lives, literally entered the burning epicenter and pulled out first the associate professor, then pulled out the girl, who was in a serious condition," said Ministry of Interior Secretary General Dimitar Kangaldzhiev.

A drone survey and two attempts to enter the warehouses with special machines to rescue the other people were made last night by teams of an army bomb disposal unit.

Bomb squad and military arrived at the scene of the fire in the fireworks warehouses near Elin Pelin

"We used the so-called 'sand cats', armoured vehicles, we went in with them to make it safe for the people who go inside. We decided that there might be people alive and a chance that they could be rescued," added Valentin Radev, an explosives expert.

Both attempts were unsuccessful, and experts say the temperature inside the warehouses exceeded 1,000 degrees per Celsius. More and more explosions followed.

The fire spread to the warehouse base of a large chain store, a fire occurred there as well. The BG Alert early warning system sent calls for evacuation.

Explosions continued throughout the night. The efforts were focused on a large warehouse allegedly full with two tonnes of TNT equivalent explosive.

"There is one warehouse that has a quantity similar to what has exploded so far. This warehouse has been unaffected for now, our goal was to keep it in its entirety so that it does not take the blast of the other warehouses," added Commissioner Kirill Zhelev, Special Operations and Counter-Terrorism Directorate.

Two helicopters were also involved in the battle with the fire. About two hours later, however, they were called off because of the danger of a chemical reaction between the water and the substances in the warehouses.Specialised military units were on standby to arrive on the scene."They will come all the way from Belene. This is a specialised unit, it has robots, engineering specialists who can provide assistance, especially in reconnaissance of the terrain with robots," said Brigadier General Stanimir Yordanov, director of the Operations and Training Directorate at the Defence Headquarters.

Human negligence is one possibility for cause of the blasts.

"We have information that the associate professor who was at the scene was preparing pyrotechnics for some kind of celebration today, but it is most likely human negligence," said Dimitar Kangaldzhiev, the Interior Ministry's secretary-general.

The fire is already smouldering, but the bangings continue.

"The actions that will be carried out, all the actions at the scene, they will start at the earliest 24 hours after the last explosion," said caretaker Minister of Interior, Kalin Stoyanov.

Fire breaks are being made in the areas of Elin Pelin and the village of Gara Elin Pelin, in case the worst-case scenario of an explosion at the last 6th warehouse comes true. The likelihood of this happening remains small