Big fire at Gorenje Surovina

30.07.2013

On Sunday, 21 July 2013, at about 1 p. m., a big fire broke out at the Gorenje Surovina location for waste collection and processing in Maribor. Firemen brought the fire under control not till the late night hours on Monday, 22 July. Extinguishing of individual smouldering spots on the landfill proceeded also in the next few days. We set up fireguards on the location to prevent waste from resurgence of ignition, too.

There we about 200 volunteer and professional firemen fromMariborand neighbouring towns involved in the firefighting. Professional support was rendered by the Gorenje fire brigade, too. The fire was localized at about 4 p. m.; however it blazed up again at night due to the secondary ignition of landfill waste outside the industrial hall. Firefighters succeeded in localizing the fire not earlier than on Monday at about3 a. m. The situation began to ease off on Monday; however there were still 50 firemen who kept on extinguishing individual focal points the whole day. In the remediation of the fire, they were helped also by the Gorenje Surovina employees.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt as there were no employees on the location when the fire broke out. No fireman was hurt either, except there of them needed medical assistance because of their exposure to heat stress.

The cause of the fire is not yet known. It will be ascertained in the ongoing criminal investigation.

The fire demolished two thirds of the industrial hall for the processing of waste electrical and electronic equipment, the plastic shredder equipment, the storage space for recyclable materials, and the solar roof top power plant. The facility has been insured. The damage will be reported by the insurance representatives and valuers in the next days. Therefore, we cannot assess the damage caused by the fire yet.

Now, we strive to restore normal business activities on other Gorenje Surovina locations as soon as possible. We have four business units on the Maribor Tezno location. Production was jammed up the whole time during firefighter intervention. This week, we however started a limited-scope production in the business units for metal and non-metal processing. In the solid fuel production unit, located in the vicinity of the fire, the whole equipment, static structure, power grids, and other vital areas of operation need to be thoroughly inspected. We plan to start the production in ten days. The greatest damage was caused in the unit for waste electrical and electronic equipment that employs 20-30 workers. They are temporarily out of work, however we believe in keeping their jobs, since we trust national authorities to play a constructive role in our obtaining permissions for a replacement location.
Arrangements for its building are already under way.

We are immensely grateful to all firefighters who prevented even a major disaster by their courage, self-sacrifice, and altruism.
Sincere thanks to all of them!

Thank you also to all our business partners, and our employees who were willing to help during those difficult days.