After a major fire at a tire recycling factory in southern Lithuania has been extinguished following a ten-day effort, the environment minister assures that dangerous waste will be removed from the site.
“We will probably start removing the waste today,” Kęstutis Mažeika told BNS on Friday. “Some of the fire fighters have left already and freed the way, so we can access the area. The remaining fire fighters are still working and some of the waste is obstructing their work. That waste is already extinguished and we plan to remove it.”
The dangerous waste, mostly of burnt tires, will be removed from the site in the town of Alytus by the state-run enterprise Toksika.
Its managing director Arūnas Dirvinskas told BNS the enterprise was waiting for permission from the municipal emergency commission.
“We have been on standby for three days, waiting for the municipal emergency commission's permission to come and remove that waste,” Dirvinskas said.
He said earlier that around 300 tons of material needed to be removed. It will be moved to Šiauliai District and incinerated at a special power plant.
The fire at Ekologistika's tire storage facility in Alytus, covering an area of 2,000 square meters, broke out on October 16. It was contained within several days, but Alytus Mayor Nerijus Cesiulis announced that it was fully put out only on Friday.
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