The PSD mayor of Krevedia, Florin Petre, posted a video on the city hall’s website, trying his best to convince us that he was unaware of the risks posed by the LPG company, that he had received no complaints (although citizens do complain about what) and that he was one of the first arrived at the scene, calling 112 and helped to remove citizens from the dangerous area.

Regarding the controversial statements, which are ready to get him expelled from the SDP, the mayor blames the “press that put pressure” on him and emotionalism, saying that some statements were misinterpreted.

“In 2020, ISU notified us about the withdrawal of the company’s permit. It closed the institution and surrounded it with a large opaque fence. How many times I passed by, saw various cars in the yard, but no economic activity. I have not received any complaints from citizens, neither written, nor verbal, nor even on social networks… In the middle of the night, in those moments of general panic, several television stations called me, as well as Digi 24 channels, not knowing that this was an interview. and that I am recorded. Under the excitement of the moment, I gave these answers mechanically, without passing them through the filter of thinking, and therefore the thought arose that I knew about the company’s activities,” says the mayor.

Reading out of the corner of his eye from the sheet/prompter, the mayor continued his tirade about the media taking advantage of his “physical and mental exhaustion” and preventing him from fulfilling his duty to the citizens of the city.

“What was our business?”

On Tuesday, the mayor of Crevedia made his first public appearance since the explosions that killed two people, visiting a local cultural center that accommodated families left homeless by the blasts after the county prefect arrived in Dambowitz, Claudia Gilia and the president of the county council, Corneliu Stefan.

When asked who, in his opinion, was to blame for this disaster, Petre Florin answered briefly: “The boss of the company.”

• “What kind of business did we have if we got a notice to stop this business? We saw with our own eyes that the doors were closed and no one was driving. (…)

From my point of view, if ISU had informed the police to check from time to time whether this station is working, it would be fine,” he continued, claiming that he did not know how the company got the land and that “everything was fine until 2020”, when the company announced to the municipality that it was closing its business.

When it was pointed out that it was a small community, the mayor of Crevedia replied, “I wouldn’t say it’s a small community if we have at least 12,000 residents.”

He claimed he was unaware of the building permits granted to the firm during his time as mayor, adding that he did not know: “I wasn’t around at the time.”

When reporters drew his attention to the fact that he has been mayor since 2016, when he also had a criminal record, Petre Florin simply went: “Ah, now you’re giving away a criminal record.”

We will remind, on Saturday two devastating explosions thundered in Krevedia. As a result, two people died: a man who had a heart attack after seeing his wife on fire died shortly after, and a woman died on Sunday in hospital with burns to 95% of her body. Also, 56 people were injured, many of them firefighters.

At the time of the explosions, the liquefied gas warehouse in Krevedia, which had been operating illegally and had been listed as closed since the fall of 2020, had three liquefied gas tanks, two of which were parked outside. During the pumping of gas from one tank to another in the yard of the enterprise, a fire broke out under one of the tanks, the Prosecutor General’s Office reports.

The devastating explosions in Krevedia revealed a whole series of violations – the gas station, which belonged to the son of the PSD mayor Caracal, was closed only for documentation purposes.

• FILM A film about the tragedy of Krevedia. At the time of the explosions, there were three tanks loaded with liquefied gas

On the same topic:

• At the first meeting after the explosions, the city council of Krevedia gives a plot of land to the brother of the mayor’s adviser: “Sleeping on the couch, isn’t that a priority?”
• Mayor Caracal’s “octopus”: Companies in which the son is a shareholder concluded contracts for more than 4.5 million lei for fuel with the city halls of the country, which were mainly led by PSD mayors
• The LPG company from Crevedia received several fines from the ISU, did not have a fire permit and announced in 2020 that it was closing the workplace / The first hypothesis about the explosion