A car carrying oxygen tanks exploded in Plovdiv

A car carrying oxygen tanks exploded in “Smirnenski” neighbourhood in Bulgaria’s second largest city of Plovdiv, near a school, on March 31.

No people were injured, the driver was also unhurt but in shock. He says that minutes separated him from a fatal end.

Three fire-fighting teams put out the fire. The driver of the car was given emergency medical aid, but he refused hospitalisation. The car's ceiling was blown off from the blast and debris was strewn around, with some of the windows of neighbouring houses broken. Local residents arrived at the scene and stopped traffic until the fire-fighting teams arrived.

While driving his vehicle, the driver, Genovati Berimski, smelled naphtha. He immediately stopped and got out to check what was going on under the hood of the car, but at the same moment he saw smoke coming from the dashboard. He attempted to remove two of the oxygen tanks, but the car was already engulfed in flames and had exploded due to the high temperature.

"Smoke appeared under the dashboard. The car caught fire and the oxygen tanks afterwards," Berimski said.

Three of the tanks in the car were full.

And when we got here, the car was already on fire, the guys called the fire-fighting service. They stopped the traffic, the neighbour, Stefan, went and he stopped the traffic because when it exploded, it was... I can’t describe it," said Velichka, a witness to the incident.

An investigation into the case is ongoing.

Images by firefighing department in Plovdiv