Official Response
The mayor of Sofia, Boyko Borisov, was among the first officials to arrive at the scene. He arrived and issued a warning to local residents to stay indoors or leave the area and to the inhabitants of Sofia to stay at home, and close all windows.
Later, all residents were ordered to evacuate an 8-km zone around the site for fear of another, more powerful explosion.
Representatives from the Bulgarian Red Cross, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry for the Environment, the Ministry of Defense, Civil Defense Units and Pirogov paramedics were all at the scene.
The first few hours were characterised by many accusations in front of television crews between Borisov and Etem that the situation had not been, and was not, being handled well.
It is an interesting coincidence that a modernised system of the pan-European 112 emergency telephone line had only become operational at midnight on the same day. "Even if we had organized it, we could not have planned it so well," the Emergency Situations Minister told MPs.
Read more about this topic: 2008 Chelopechene Explosions
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