Dramatic Rescue: Officers Drive Buses Out of Burning Parking Lot in Petarch (VIDEO)

Police officers from the Kostinbrod station carried out an improvised rescue operation late last night, managing to pull seven buses out of a burning depot in the village of Petarch, the Interior Ministry announced.

The alert came in at 4:28 a.m., reporting a fire at the “Municipal Transport” parking area in Petarch. The signal was immediately relayed to the Kostinbrod police unit, and the first to arrive were patrol officers Ivaylo Penev and Alex Stanislavov. Their initial task was to determine whether anyone had been injured. As the flames spread quickly across the vehicles in the lot, the officers decided there was little time to spare and focused on removing as many buses as possible from the danger zone.

With Stanislavov securing the perimeter, Penev got into the vehicles one by one and drove seven buses out of the reach of the fire. After moving the last bus to safety, the two officers stayed on site to support the firefighters who had already begun working to contain the blaze. The Ministry’s press office emphasized their direct involvement in assisting the emergency teams.

Fire crews from Kostinbrod, Slivnitsa and Sofia joined the effort to bring the situation under control. The fire damaged five buses, two minibuses and two cars, but there were no reports of injuries. A scene inspection is underway, and investigators are working to establish the cause of the fire.

The released video footage comes from the body camera of officer Ivaylo Penev.