Sofia Municipality Says Air Is Clean, Will Not Take Further Measures.
We will not take further measures, announced Eng. Marin Marinov, director of the Climate, Energy and Air Directorate at Sofia Municipality, during a briefing on atmospheric air quality after the fire at a waste processing facility in the Lyulin district.
The latest air quality data are very good, with values improving over the past 24 hours. According to Marinov, the air is currently clean, the data are much better than on a normal summer day, and there is no trend toward deterioration.
We also have no instructions for vulnerable groups, Marinov said. According to him, since yesterday the data from the Municipality’s mobile measuring station, which is on site in Lyulin, have shown current values that do not pose a risk to the population. They have been checked, verified and processed, he added.
Marinov explained that what residents are sensing is related to the extinguishing of the fire yesterday and that there may be residual soot, but the data have been improving every hour since the morning.
According to him, the only way to determine where the smoke cloud from the fire is located is by monitoring benzene levels, as these are the only indicators that can be tracked.
Regarding the elevated benzene levels in the area, Marinov said the concentrations were not higher than those usually observed during normal winter months. The briefing was also attended by Ivan Andriyanov, acting head of the Air Department at the Climate, Energy and Air Directorate.