The head of the Emergency Situations Department of the Romanian Interior Ministry, Raed Arafat, announced today, November 18, that residents of Tulcea county evacuated due to a fire on a Ukrainian LNG tanker the day before could return. The risk of a strong explosion that could hit them has decreased, but the ship continues to burn.
The Secretary of State clarified that while we are talking about the return of those living in the village of Chatalkioi, those taken out of the village of Plauru will remain in a safe zone, since their settlement is located closer to the source of danger — about three hundred meters away.
According to Arafat, the situation on the tanker is under the control of the Ukrainian authorities, and the gas remaining on the ship is in small quantities and continues to burn out.
"There is only one flame left on the ship where the fire occurred. There is also a Ukrainian vessel under the Turkish flag, which continues to extinguish the fire. It was decided that the evacuees from Chatalkiyoy should return this morning, given that the amount of gas has also decreased due to the fact that it was continuously burning and was consumed, which means that the affected area is decreasing in any case. The settlement of Plauru remains evacuated," Raed Arafat said.
Bucharest emphasizes that until the situation is taken under full control, the fire will not be extinguished, and the gas will not stop leaving the vessel, the risk of an explosion remains.
The day before, 246 people were evacuated from villages bordering Ukraine. Also, Romanian servicemen who controlled the airspace and military equipment, including the Cheetah anti-aircraft system, were withdrawn from the danger zone.
As EADaily reported, on the night of November 17, the Orinda tanker with 4 thousand tons of liquefied gas standing off the Ukrainian coast in the port of the Danube was attacked by a UAV. A fire started on the ship. If an explosion had occurred, its impact would have been felt within a radius of 4.5−5 kilometers.
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