Outdoor fire

Yesterday’s fire in Budapest, Rákosrendező, a brown-belt area in Budapest’s 13th district, has been extinguished overnight, Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Facebook, adding that the fire was the third in the area this year, and that “according to information received, the authorities are once again suspecting arson. In the morning, the disaster management wrote on its official Facebook site that 800 square meters of waste had burned in the XIII district. A fire broke out in a disused site on Tatai Street on Sunday evening. Metropolitan professional and volunteer firefighters who were alerted to the incident, under the direction of the disaster management operational service, prevented the fire from spreading. The firefighters used several water jets to extinguish the flames and were assisted by a working machine. The extinguishing work continued this morning, but now only the follow-up work is being carried out. “Karácsony said that the national railway company MÁV was still in possession of Rakosrendezo, over which the municipality has recently exercised its pre-emption rights before it could be sold to an investor from the United Arab Emirates. “What happens here is now a shared issue of all Budapest citizens,” Karácsony said. “The area is filled with waste transported and left there by the state, and its removal is clearly, under law, the task of the state, a costly endeavour…” he said. The authorities are investigating the circumstances of the fire, he said, adding “it may be worthwhile to investigate whether there is a link between the subsequent fires.” Karácsony said the municipality is looking into the legal possibilities of a “thorough review” before the city takes possession of the area. Karácsony noted that they had been waiting for 57 days for János Lázár, the construction and transport minister, to respond to City Hall’s proposal of talks on developments in Rákosrendező.