The rescuers were trapped under rubble because of garbage-slide at the landfill in the village of Velyky Hrybovychy in Lviv region, and among them was the shift chief of the State Emergency Service, 32-year-old Andriy Vnenkevych, the member of UKROP.
“Landfill has been burning for two days. These guys stood on the garbage hill when in a moment a part of it (of the size of a nine-storey building) collapsed and pulled them down,” said Ihor Muravskyy, the chairman of UKROP district organisation in Zhovkva, deputy of the district council, who is at the scene of the accident.
The members of UKROP have been concerned about the problems of Hrybovytske landfill for a long time. The party activists demanded to close this dangerous landfill and to build a modern recycling plant, but the officials ignored them.
“Both me and all Lviv residents want to know: who will be responsible for the collapse at the landfill and the rescuers buried underneath? As our activists have enough documents with bureaucrats’ replies stating that everything is all right with the landfill,” wrote the chairman of UKROP political council Taras Batenko on his Facebook page.
Now rescue operations at the scene of collapse continue. The UKROP party hopes that the rescuers will be found alive and this incident will finally put an end to the existence of the landfill that threatens people’s lives.
“I do not know what or who prevented the city and regional authorities from resolving this problem, but now they cannot escape the responsibility. It’s high time they paid for many years of avoiding dealing with the problem of environmental disaster. It’s high time they told people why they have to live close to the “ticking bomb”, said Taras Batenko.
In view of this incident the faction of UKROP in Lviv City Council initiates holding of an extraordinary session tomorrow, on May 31. Signatures of the deputies are collected in the party office in Lviv.
