Bulgaria's 2008 Train Fire Victims Had 4.5 Min for Evacuation

Photo of the experimental reenactment of the accident from December 08, 2011. Photo by BGNES

Toxic gases released during the fire on the Sofia-Kardam train reached a lethal concentration in about 4.5 minutes, according to expert testimony in the case which is being retried by the Veliko Tarnovo Appellate Court.

On February 29, 2008, nine people were charred to death and nine more injured after two cars of the night train going from Sofia to the northeastern town of Kardam burst into flames minutes after midnight.

Georgi Georgiev, ticket collector, Ivanka Kostadinova, head of the train and Georgi Ivanov, deputy head of the Passenger Services unit of the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) were summoned as defendants on charges of manslaughter by gross negligence.

The Pleven District Court sentenced Georgi Georgiev to 12 years of imprisonment, Ivanka Kostadinova to 8 years behind bars and declared Georgi Ivanov not guilty.

On March 02, 2011, the Veliko Tarnovo Appellate Court reduced the prison terms of Georgiev and Kostadinova to 8 years and 6 months and 5 years, respectively.

On September 15, 2011, the Supreme Court of Cassation (VKS) ruled that the court of second instance had reached its conclusions on the basis of inconclusive/incomplete evidence and returned the case for retrial.

In the course of the retrial, the testimony given by expert witnesses has not been challenged by any of the parties.

On Thursday, the defense argued that Georgiev and Kostadinova had done everything possible to evacuate the passengers as soon as possible but had been unable to prevent the deaths of the nine passengers.

During Tursday's sitting, the Veliko Tarnovo Appellate Court reviewed the conclusions of the experimental reenactment of the accident.

The lawyers of the heirs of the victims, however, insisted that the results of the experiment confirmed the testimony of the fire safety and technology expert witnesses that Georgiev and Kostadinova had had sufficient time to get the passengers out of the train after the fire broke out.

The court refused to rule on the results of the experimental reenactment of the accident but approved the demand of Georgiev's defender that the expert witnesses be assigned additional tasks.

The experts will have to shed light on the actions of the ticket collector after he received a signal that a fire had erupted in compartment 6 of the sleeping car.

The experts' opinion on the questions raised on Thursday is to be presented at the next court sitting scheduled for March 22.

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