site.btaCulture Minister Orders Emergency Check into Burned Tobacco Warehouses in Plovdiv

Culture Minister Orders Emergency Check into Burned Tobacco Warehouses in Plovdiv

Sofia, August 21 (BTA) - Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov has ordered his ministry's Inspectorate for Protection of Cultural Heritage Chief Directorate to carry out an emergency check into the burned tobacco warehouses in Plovdiv (South Central Bulgaria), the Culture Ministry said Sunday.

Four tobacco warehouses in downtown Plovdiv Saturday caught fire which destroyed everything but their facades before it was put out shortly after midnight, BTA learned from fire-brigade spokesperson Tsvyatko Deshev. Over 30 fire fighters with 9 fire trucks took part in the fire's extinction. The reason for the fire is being investigated.

The four multistorey buildings are all part of a group monument of culture called "Ivan Vazov - Tsanko Dyustabanov Street Ensemble", and two of them are individually registered as cultural valuables, which places all of them under the protection of the Cultural Heritage Act.

Once the Inspectorate for Protection of Cultural Heritage concludes the check, the Culture Ministry will undertake the measures envisaged by law for determining how the architectural ensemble could be restored.