Totokbalint -- Hungary
Hungarian fireworks blast

2004 -- One person died and 10 were injured when a series of blasts rocked a Hungarian fireworks factory, hurling fireworks up to five kilometres (three miles) from the site of the explosion, officials said.

The blasts started around 5 pm (1500 GMT) inside a storage area of the factory, some 10 kilometres (six miles) west of the capital.   The person killed was in the factory at the time.

Several hours after the initial blast explosions could still be heard around the factory at Totokbalint and black smoke shrouded the area.

"The fire that broke out after the explosion spread to six houses nearby. Firefighters could not initially approach the site because there was a danger of further explosions but are now putting out the fire," a fire service spokesman said.

"Fireworks have been landing five kilometres (three miles) from the factory."

The factory is the biggest fireworks manufacturer in the country and is located alongside about 100 other businesses. Some 40 houses near the factory, most of them holiday homes, were evacuated, a local official said.

Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy visited the site of the blast during the evening, local radio said.

A press photographer on his way to take pictures of the blast died in a motorcycle accident.

 

Totokbalint
Hungarian Fireworks Factory Director Arrested
Blast Toll Rises To Three

-- Hungarian police arrested Friday the director of the fireworks factory that was destroyed by blasts the previous day, killing three people, for allegedly keeping unauthorized military explosives at the site.

"The director general and finance director of the factory were arrested after the discovery of residue of several hundred kilograms (pounds) of gunpowder, for which the Pyrotech company did not have authorization," said regional police chief Istvan Ignac.

Ten people were injured in the blasts which propelled fireworks as far as five kilometers (three miles) away from the factory located on the western suburbs of the capital Budapest.

"The four-meter (13-foot) crater leads one to think the explosives blew up first and not the fireworks," he said. "We now think that the illegally stored military material blew up first and then set off the fireworks."

An inquiry has been launched into the cause of the blasts, which is expected to take a month.

The owner of a nearby lot was arrested for allegedly stocking land mine detonators, which also went off during the fire.

Explosions continued for several hours after the initial blast, keeping firefighters at bay.

Firefighters found two bodies in the fireworks factory on Friday, taking the death toll to three.

The factory is the biggest firework manufacturer in the country and is located in an industrial zone in Totokbalint, 10 kilometers west of the capital.

 

Totokbalint
Explosion kills three workers

-- The nation's biggest fireworks storage facility, owned by explosive distributor Pyro-Technic Kft, located on the grounds of the former Mechanical Works in Törökbálint (just west of Budapest between the M1 and M7 motorway junction), blew up late afternoon on Thursday, August 4 leaving three workers dead, and several injured.

Neighboring storage facilities and a washing power factory were also damaged. The fire also spread to the environmentally protected Tétényi escarpment.

Paramedics, firefighters and a rescue helicopter all rushed to the site where some 50 metric tons of explosives were stored in the 5,000sqm warehouse on the outskirts of Törökbálint. The cause of the detonation is as yet unknown.

Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy rushed to the scene to monitor the rescue work, where he also called for experts to review whether rules and regulations on the storage of explosives required further stringent amendments.

Tibor Dobson, head of the Catastrophe Prevention Office said that several fire-fighting units attended and were still "damping down" on Friday morning. "About 20 fire-fighters remained at the scene to cool remaining containers (of fireworks)," he said, adding that the rescue workers were forced to turn of the power supply in the area and evacuate several households, who were only allowed to return once the situation had been normalized. He added that no hazardous chemicals had polluted the direct atmosphere. Tamás Wittinghoff, mayor of the neighboring settlement of Budaörs, said that the blasts had led to the evacuation of 40 households endangered by the ongoing explosions. Péter Molnár, spokesman for the Budapest Fire Department, said that some houses were demolished by the detonations, and another 30 were left badly damaged.

"Several vehicles were also damaged on the site," he said, estimating that the cost of the blast would most probably swell to several hundred million forints.

Radio and television reports said that the explosions and smoke could be heard and seen up to 50km away. The incident also led to the collision of several cars on Route 70 heading westwards as motorists tried to dodge falling debris.

Reports also gave account of careless motorists driving at high speed and "rubber-necking" (watching the incident), causing further collisions. Sándor Tuba, 33, technical producer for television station TV2, suffered a fatal accident on his motorcycle, en route to the studio with footage of the incident. The area resembled what authorities called that a "war zone". Ironically, at the time of the explosion many of the bystanders were talking about the anniversary of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The crates and boxes of fireworks were still exploding on Friday morning according to Hungarian radio. Authorities asked the public not to touch any suspicious boxes and definitely not to pick up what seemed to be scattered unexploded fireworks.

 

Totokbalint
Allegations of explosives

-- The special investigating committee set up in the aftermath of the fireworks factory explosion that took place on August 5 in Törökbálint has revoked explosives storage licenses from 20 different sites in Hungary.

The catastrophic explosion in Törökbálint lead to extraordinary inspections of all the locations in Hungary which are licensed to store explosives.

The Törökbálint explosion claimed three lives, with a further 10 people injured. Several houses in the neighborhood of the factory were destroyed.

According to eyewitnesses, black clouds covered the sky following the explosion, and fireworks were heard going off inside the warehouse for many hours.

There have been allegations that the remains of an explosive device were found near the scene of the blaze, but the police have denied this.

It has further been alleged that traces of military-grade explosives were found in the ruins of the factory, but police have neither con-firmed nor denied these rumors.

On the day following the explosion, the company's four directors were arrested, but later released. The police continue to regard them as suspects in the investigation, however.