Epress.am News from Armenia
A fire broke out at the Nairit chemical plant in Yerevan early Monday. According to representatives of Armenia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, “the situation is under control, and firefighters are working on extinguishing the fire.”
Mushegh Ghazaryan, a ministry employee, told the reporters gathered at the scene that the causes of the fire could only be determined once it has been fully put out. At the same time, Ghazaryan said he has been told by representatives of Nairit’s management that the fire had broken out in a workshop where ethynol, a highly hazardous substance, is stored.
The ministry representatives also advised the reporters to keep away from the scene so as not to breathe in “the toxic air,” despite having insisted earlier that “the substance is not toxic and there is no danger of a chemical disaster.”
Karine Shahverdyan, a former employee of Nairit, said in a phone conversation with Epress.am that there were several hundred tonnes of ethynol stored in the plant.
“Twenty more employees were sacked on July 1, including the head of the workshop where the fire broke out today. Had the proper professionals been there, the accident would never have happened. But they were all sacked as they were thought to be running secondary and unimportant workshops,” Shahverdyan argued.