MORE THAN 30 fire-fighters, ten fire-engines and a team from the police rapid response unit MMAD were called out to tackle a massive chemical fire in a Linopetra industrial estate warehouse early yesterday.
Two fire engines initially responded to the callout to the former Lord Jeans building, which was being rented out as storage space to seven different firms, shortly after the blaze erupted at 4am.
However eight more units were eventually needed after flammable materials inside, including cigarettes, billboards, clothing and chemicals, caught fire and a series of mini explosions.
A thick black cloud of smoke and fumes erupted from the site and hung over parts of Limassol for hours.
Firefighters successfully prevented the fire from spreading to other buildings in the 10,000 square metre site, and though they had controlled the situation by 8am the building was still smouldering and burning in parts last night.
Authorities said it would take 24 hours before investigations could begin into the cause of the fire.
Fire service chief Andreas Nicolaou said yesterday that it was an especially dangerous fire because of the flammable stored materials and chemicals in the building, which caused the roof to collapse, slowing down the fire-fighters who were forced to wear breathing equipment throughout the battle against the flames. They were also hampered by the exceptionally high temperatures within the building due to the burning of chemicals.
Fire service spokesman Marios Kyprianou added: “There was a lot of burning material below the collapsed roof, so it took some to bring the blaze under full control.”
Around 35 fire-fighters, supported by members of MMAD joined in the effort, several of whom stayed onsite through the day to monitor the situation. Kyprianou said the causes would be investigated once the fire was fully extinguished.
The incident has raised serious questions about the enforcement of building-use regulations, as it later emerged that the building’s owner may have changed the use of buildings from a factory to a storage space without the necessary safety and security certification, reports said.
Kyriakos Hadjiittofis, the mayor of nearby Ayios Athanasios said there were ”irregularities and illegalities in the change of use of premises” of the building, and its owners had not taken safety and security precautions.
He told CyBC reporters yesterday he had repeatedly raised the issue of illegal changes of use with the competent authorities but they had not addressed the problem.
Among the items stored by the seven companies were paper, and swimming pool construction materials. The government’s department for labour and inspection will now investigate whether the close proximity of materials could have been a contributing factor in the size of the fire.
Labour inspection minister Andreas Kalogierou said that his department did not know when the change of use occurred, or that the premises had been divided into seven storage areas, or even when the last inspection took place, other than to say these would have been during the past two years.
