A fire threatened to cause havoc at fuel storage facilities and the power station in the Vasilikos industrial area of Cyprus late on Monday night with one Fire Services official warning that a catastrophe was narrowly avoided.
Reports of the fire came out at around 11pm on Monday night with the Fire Services and EMAK being dispatched to the Vasilikos area and, more specifically, to the perimeter of the fuel storage facilities of the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) and the VTTV Oil Storage Terminal.
A total of eight fire engines were at the scene to battle the blaze.
“We were facing a very difficult situation due to the dangers of the fire spreading to the cement works but also to other areas such as the fuel reserves and power station – that had been situated to the east of the blaze” said Fire Service Operations Chief Marcos Tragkolas
“It was eventually brought under control early on Tuesday morning but this fire could have been better maintained had better preventative measures been put in place.”
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The cause of the fire is still under investigation and it is believed to have started in an area containing rubber material and wooden pylons which belong to the EAC and which had been in close proximity to flammable material.
The Vasilikos Power Station is the newest power plant of the EAC and is located between Larnaca and Limassol.
Back in 2011, 13 people died when a munitions depot buckled under the boiling sun in the nearby Evangelos Florakis Naval Base and exploded – causing extensive damage to the power station and causing rolling power cuts throughout the island.