Aspropyrgos: fire and explosion at a metal processing plant, 11 injured

In Aspropyrgos there is a large fire at a metal processing plant resulted in 11 casualties. Three were intubated, and there was a propane tank on the property.

A major fire and explosion occurred on the morning of July 9 at a metal processing plant in Aspropyrgos. According to the latest data, 11 people were injured, three of them are intubated and are in serious condition.

The fire broke out at the enterprise at the intersection of Megaridos and Hiou streets. The first reports spoke of six, then eight casualties, but later the number of wounded rose to 11 people. According to Protothemathree victims were intubated, and the moment of a strong explosion was recorded at the scene.

Some of the victims were taken to the Θριάσιο hospital. According to Newsittwo were intubated in Θριάσιο, another victim was taken to Αττικόν and should be transferred to the burn department of the CAT. Several people sought help on their own, including with breathing problems.

112, propane and strong fire forces

At around 08:30, a 112 message was sent to residents of the area urging them to leave the Megaridos Street area and move towards Aspropyrgos via Agiou Georgiou Street. The cause of the alarm was not only the fire, but also information that there was a truck with a propane tank on the territory of the enterprise.

Worked on site 75 firefighters with 20 vehiclesas well as four special vehicles, including two aerial platforms, a special aerial platform for oil refining facilities and a vehicle for refilling breathing apparatus. One helicopter was deployed from the air, and water carriers from the municipality of Aspropyrgos also assisted. This data is provided by ΣΚΑΪ.

Due to the fire, the police blocked traffic along Megaridos Street from the level of Agiou Georgiou Street. Drivers have been asked to follow police instructions and take alternative routes. Actually, when there is a propane tank next to a burning enterprise, the idea of ​​“I’ll drive quickly” turns into a master’s thesis on human carelessness.

What exactly was burning

Various reports describe the facility as a metal recycling site, an auto parts facility, or a material trading/processing facility. According to EfSynthe fire started under still unknown circumstances. Naftemporiki with reference to ΕΡΤ writes that the facility received very serious damage, and the fire, according to evidence, spread to neighboring enterprises.

Black smoke was visible from afar. When mixed materials, plastic, oils, rubber, wiring, auto parts and recycling waste burn, such fires become not just a local incident, but an environmental and sanitary problem. Especially in Aspropyrgos, where the industrial zone, warehouses, scrap sites, transport and residential areas too often exist side by side, as if urban planning had lost the cards again.

Why do fires recur in such areas?

This fire cannot be viewed as a completely isolated episode. Aspropyrgos and the wider Triasio area have long been one of Attica’s most challenging areas: industry, logistics, warehouses, waste management, scrap, illegal dumping, open storage areas and lax controls create a constant fire risk.

Athens News already wrote about a similar problem after a major fire at a processing plant in Oreokastro, when a toxic cloud reached Attica. Toxic cloud from the Oreokastro fire reaches Attica. There, as here, the key question was not only how to quickly extinguish the fire, but why such facilities have been operating for years near residential areas and accumulating flammable materials.

A separate layer of the problem is the scrap and scrap metal market. Back in 2019, Athens News wrote about the shady side of waste recycling and how a fire at the Aspropyrgos facility raised questions about recycling companies. Blue bins and the garbage mafia in Greece.

Scrap, copper and the criminal economy

The scrap metal sector in Greece is not criminal in itself: there are legal enterprises, licenses, recycling, export and normal business. But there has been a shadow economy around it for decades – especially where copper, cables, auto parts, old cars and illegal sites are involved.

Kathimerini recently wrote about the “closed” areas of Western Attica and explicitly noted that not all scrap sites in Aspropyrgos are legal. The publication said that owners of such sites may pay small sums to Roma groups to dismantle old cars and trucks, and to increase profits, the vehicles are sometimes set on fire to burn off the plastic and upholstery, leaving a metal frame.

Previously To Vima described the “dark pyramid of scrap”: stolen or scavenged metals, cables and copper pass through a chain of small collectors, intermediaries and warehouses, and the real profits are deposited above. Such schemes often exploit poor migrants, illegal labor and people from marginalized communities. This is not an ethnic characteristic of crime, but a social-criminal infrastructure: cheap hands at the bottom, money at the top.

That is why in the current case it is important not to replace the investigation with guesswork. While there is no official information about the owners of the enterprise, the cause of the fire and violations, it cannot be said that a particular facility was associated with a particular ethnic group or criminal scheme. But a broader question can and should be raised: who controls such sites, what exactly is stored on them, how metals are accounted for, whether there are fire safety plans, and who checks the circulation of copper and auto parts.

Why is burning so dangerous?

Metal and auto parts recycling facilities often contain materials that, alone or in combination, dramatically increase the fire load: oils, batteries, plastics, rubber, fuel residues, cylinders, cables, insulation, paints, solvents, electronic components. If all this is stored tightly, without normal separation of zones and fire corridors, the fire quickly turns into an industrial accident.

In such fires, it is not only open fire that is dangerous. Explosions, toxic smoke, damage to the respiratory tract, spread of fire to neighboring objects and secondary fires are dangerous. The presence of a propane tank inside or next to a burning object transfers the situation into a separate category of risk: firefighters have to not only put out the fire, but also prevent a chain accident.

And here the question for the state becomes very simple: how many of these sites in Western Attica were actually checked, and not “on paper”? How many of them have up-to-date fire safety plans? Where are gas cylinders and tanks stored? Who controls the acceptance of copper, cables and auto parts? If the answer again turns out to be “we’ll sort it out after the fire,” then this is not risk management, but a national tradition of walking with a bucket after a barn that has already burned down.

What should the investigation find out?

The investigation will have to establish where exactly the fire started, what was the first source of the fire, what materials were on the territory, whether storage standards were met, whether there were permits, fire protection systems, an evacuation plan and access for fire equipment.

A separate issue is the condition of workers. With 11 victims, we are talking not only about material damage, but also about labor safety. We need to find out whether people were in a high-risk area, whether they had protective equipment, who was responsible for the evacuation and why three were injured so severely that they required intubation.

If it is confirmed that there were indeed hazardous materials and a propane tank on the property, the inspection should determine whether they were placed legally and in compliance with regulations. Otherwise, the favorite Greek scheme will again turn out: the documents are there somewhere, the object somehow works, the whole of Attica can see the smoke, and they begin to look for the culprits only after the explosion.

Main conclusion

The fire in Aspropyrgos is not just an incident at one enterprise, but a symptom of an old problem in Western Attica. Industrial zones, scrap sites, waste recycling, auto parts, fuel, gas tanks and lax controls create an environment where a single fire quickly becomes a threat to workers, neighboring businesses and residents.

The main thing now is the condition of the victims and localization of the fire. But after extinguishing, another, less spectacular and much more important stage should begin: checking licenses, materials, fire safety, labor conditions and the company’s connections with the scrap metal market. Because if after 11 victims everything again ends with the standard “causes are being determined,” the next black column of smoke over Aspropyrgos will not be a surprise, but a schedule.

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