Amid heightened global tensions stemming from the Middle East conflict, several European nations, including Bulgaria, have reviewed their civil defense infrastructure. In response, the University Rescue Squad (URS), part of the Bulgarian Youth Red Cross, published a map detailing the location of civil defense and fallout shelters across the country to increase public awareness. According to fire service data, Bulgaria possesses 247 designated civil defense and fallout shelters.
However, the report indicates that only 18 of these facilities are immediately operational for their intended purpose; the remaining shelters can reportedly be made functional within one week. Maintenance protocols require an official caretaker for each facility, and the fire service is mandated to conduct biannual inspections. In the capital, Sofia, City Hall reported that ten of the city’s 92 shelters have undergone overhauls in the last two years, with six more slated for renovation and the remainder scheduled for repair within four years.
Many of these shelters are situated in schools and kindergartens. URS volunteer Radinel Pargov noted that the official registry does not account for privately owned shelters, which are accessible to the public but lack direct management by the fire service. While many settlements lack dedicated shelters, the largest available protection resource is the underground Metro system, which has the capacity to shelter over 900,000
Topics: #bomb #shelters #bulgaria
