A year after a major fire at waste sorting company Ecoservice, police and the prosecutor's office continues to conduct a pre-trial investigation. Although no one has been prosecuted yet, the previously initiated investigation into the destruction of property in a generally dangerous manner has been reclassified into an investigation into a possible crime against the environment and human health.
"The pre-trial investigation is still ongoing, the planned procedural actions are being carried out, no one has been charged," the prosecutor's office informed Elta.
ELTA reminds that big fire It happened last year, on August 5, in the territory of "Ecoservice" near Gariūnai, Vilnius. Firefighters worked at the fire scene for several days, traffic was closed on the nearby Gariūnai Street due to the incident, and residents were urged to avoid being outside and close windows.
Then the Vilnius County Chief Police Commissariat started a pre-trial investigation into the destruction of property in a generally dangerous manner.
The Prosecutor's Office informed Elta that after evaluating the data obtained during the pre-trial investigation, this investigation was reclassified and is now being carried out in accordance with the article of the Criminal Code, which provides for responsibility for environmental protection or use of natural resources or structures that use or store dangerous substances or that contain potentially dangerous devices or dangerous activities, violation of maintenance or use rules.
Anyone who has violated the rules of environmental protection or use of natural resources, or maintenance or use of structures where hazardous substances are used or stored, or where potentially dangerous facilities or dangerous activities are located, if this has caused a risk to human life or health or as a result may have caused significant damage to the air, land, soil, water, animals, plants, other living organisms, organic and inorganic substances or anthropogenic components, or caused other serious consequences to any of these environmental elements, shall be punishable by a fine or restriction of liberty, or arrest, or imprisonment for up to three years.
In this study, a task is assigned to specialists, the conclusion is awaited.
When the fire broke out, it was thought to have started from one container, but later it turned out that the fire started in an open area.
"In the fire investigation material, it is indicated that the fire developed in an open area, in piles of waste stored on a concrete pavement, in compressed piles of secondary raw material waste and in buildings that are blocked from each other: a building, a production building and a shed," the Fire Protection and Rescue Department's certificate states.
In March, it was reported that the environmental management company "Ecoservice" is investing 18 million. euros for the reconstruction and infrastructure improvement of the Gariūnai sorting center damaged by the fire.
The total area of the company's buildings is more than 3500 square meters. m, the total area of the entire sorting center is more than 3 hectares.
It is expected that the improvement of the existing engineering infrastructure will help to ensure the highest environmental and fire safety requirements, and the installed state-of-the-art packaging waste sorting equipment will allow us to get even closer to the principles of the circular economy - to reduce the wastage of resources and ensure that as many materials as possible return to the market for reuse.
Ingrida Steniulienė (ELTA)
