“Remembering the Tragedy of the Great Flood in Vratsa: 57th Anniversary”

Today marks the 57th anniversary of a tragedy that the people of Vrachansko cannot forget for more than half a century. The great flood in the village of Zgorigrad took the lives of more than 10 people, and 1/3 of the residents were left homeless.

It has been said for years that this could have been prevented.

On May 1, 1966, Bulgaria celebrated Labor Day with demonstrations. Sofries with roasted lamb are being prepared. It is the same in Vratsa, where everything seems quite calm. Until 11.25 a.m.…

Then, over 500 thousand tons of heavy metals, mud, water and trees flowed towards Vrattsata with enormous speed from the broken wall of the tailings storage facility along the bed of the Leva River. They sweep everything in their path.

At that time, Katina Zhivkova was 11 years old. He and a group of other children were playing by the river and noticed that something was happening. Her waters began to rise and became murky. Elderly people drove them up to the high ground and thus subsequently saved their lives.

Katina, however, still he remembers the terror of the rumble and the huge wave. As well as Tsetsa Krasteva, who lost her entire family in the disaster – her mother, her father and her 6-year-old brother.

„The coffins just kept going one after the other. It was something very scary for our village,” says Katina, quoted by Bulnews.

According to official information, the victims were a little over 100, but people in Zgorigrad and Vratsa still claim that there were many more. More than 300 families remain homeless, and the injured number about 2 thousand.

„All the coffins with the deceased were brought by helicopter to a meadow. When you opened them, the people inside looked terrible – they were being beaten by the stones”, Katina recalls.

“The other thing that is very painful is my memory of the stadium with the bodies – they were washing them with hoses in order to recognize each other”, says Tsetsa.

And according to the people of Zgorigrad, this tragedy could have been prevented. A year earlier, it was rumored among local residents that there were large cracks in the wall of the tailings pond.

It is also claimed that a world-renowned Russian scientist, with a letter from the previous year, warned the then Committee on Chemistry and Metallurgy that the integrity of the wall was broken and there were landslide processes. In his letter he even prophetically states: “In April and May next year, a disaster involving human casualties and great damage can be expected”.

That’s why people are still very angry at those in power who kept the sinister secret about the danger, and after the tragedy did not even allow information to spreadso as not to interrupt Labor Day.

In a closed-door trial, four lower-level executives were subsequently convicted. Two were imprisoned for 12, one for 10, and the fourth for 5 years.

Today, a white monument next to the church marks the tragedy in the village. The other is the protruding remains of the tailings pond towers. The soil there is still literally burnt.

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