POLISH FIREFIGHTERS battled a massive blaze yesterday in the northeastern town of Bialystok that left two injured and caused major damage.
The blaze occurred at 5.30 yesterday morning when two trains carrying fuel collided at a rail crossing near the main train station.
Local media reported that a carriage containing petrol caught fire after driving into 10 carriages containing diesel. Within minutes the explosion caused the fire to spread to a further seven tank cars, as well as both locomotives.
Two employees of state rail company PKP received medical attention yesterday as the firefighters struggled to control the blaze. Images on local television showed the huge, mushroom clouds of bright orange flames.
Efforts to control them were hampered through most of the day by high temperatures and acrid black smoke, which spread across the area. About 30 rescue units tackled the fire before calling for reinforcements from local towns.
“The situation is dynamic,” said Pawel Fratczak, local fire chief, to Polish television. However, he said the fire did not pose a threat to local houses; by yesterday afternoon the fire was slowly being brought under control.
Meanwhile, the world’s tallest Jesus statue has been completed in Poland’s western city of Aswiebodzin. The statue, standing on an artificial mound in a cabbage field, measures 33 metres – one metre for every year Jesus lived – though the entire construction will measure 52 metres — some 16 metres taller than Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer. The statue will be officially unveiled on November 21st.
“This is the fulfilment of a life’s work,” said the statue’s creator, Fr Sylwester Zawadzki, according to Polish radio. “I felt inspired to fulfil Jesus’s will, and today I give thanks to Him for allowing me to fulfil his will.”
The fibreglass and plaster statue has drawn a guarded reaction from Polish bishops. But local mayor Dariusz Bekisz says he hopes the statue will turn his town of 20,000 people into a tourist destination.
“More people will visit Aswiebodzin and leave their money here,” said Mr Bekisz. “Some will come for spiritual reasons, others out of curiosity.”
The construction of the privately funded statue has been delayed several times, with completion put back a month after Jesus’s head fell from the statue and injured a builder below.