Bulgarian Railroads Set Record with 6th Train Fire in 3 months

Train No. 2615 of the Bulgarian State Railways BDZ caught on fire in July on the route from the capital Sofia to the Black Sea city of Varna. Photo by BGNES

The engine of the express train running from the Danube city of Ruse to Sofia caught on fire Wednesday morning in Bulgaria's latest railroad scare.

The incident occurred near the village of Odarne, in the area of the northern city of Pleven.

All passengers have been evacuated and there are no injuries, according a spokesperson of the State-owned Bulgarian Railroads, BDZ, cited by Darik radio.

The fire happened at 9 am with the engine catching fire while the train was moving, but it had been immediately extinguished. None of the cars have caught fire. Another engine has been dispatched from Pleven to pull the damaged one and the entire composition.

The most likely culprit for the incident is a short circuit.

This is the sixth train fire in Bulgaria in the past three months, shaking Bulgaria's state-owned railroad company.

On September 3, the engine of the train also running from the Danube city of Ruse to Sofia caught on fire as well.

The incident occurred around 10:40 am Saturday just as the Ruse-Sofia train was entering the town of Mezdra, northeast of Sofia.

The locomotive was put out and removed from the train, and was replaced with another one so that the train could reach its final destination. There were no reported injuries.

On August 10, the Sofia-Varna train caught on fire near the town of Cherven Bryag. The relatively small fire was quickly extinguished, the breaks fixed and the train continued on its way to Varna, where it arrived 40 minutes later than the scheduled time. No one was injured, but several people suffered panic attacks.

On July 20, train No. 2615 of the Bulgarian State Railways BDZ caught on fire on route from the capital Sofia to the Black Sea city of Varna. The train was stopped and the 214 passengers were evacuated intact. However, the fire spread to the first two passenger cars before the fire brigade units arrived at the scene, more than an hour after the fire started, because of the rough terrain.

On June 29, 2011, a local train between Cherven Bryag and Montana in Northwestern Bulgaria had to stop near Vratsa because of a fire on board, without any victims.

On June 10, 2011, the locomotive of a freight train also caught on fire near Simeonovgrad in Southern Bulgaria, with the driver managing to flee intact.

The most severe train incident in Bulgaria since 1992 was also caused by a train fire when 9 persons were burned to death, and 9 others were injured in the night Sofia-Kardam train in February 2008 near Cherven Bryag.

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