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Humanitarian Mine Action

DCA assistance in cleaning up Gerdec explosion site

04/06/2008: On Saturday the 15th of March 2008, a large explosion happened on the outskirts of the Albanian capital, Tirana.
A civilian company was working with dismantling of several tons of old ammunition – a remnant for the communist era in Albania, and by mistake set of a large explosion.

The accident caused an area with a radius of 2,5 kilometres to be contaminated with ammunition. An estimated 25 persons were killed in the accident, 300 houses were completely destroyed and over 600 houses severely damaged.

Assistance from DanChurchAid

On the day of the accident DanChurchAid(DCA) was contacted by the Director of the Albanian Mine Action Executive (AMAE) who on behalf of the Albanian government requested the highly skilled DCA Mine Action staff to assist in the cleaning up of the accident area. With the financial assistance of first the DCA Emergency Unit and later on the German Foreign Ministry (GFFO) DCA was able to respond quickly and send two Mine Action teams to the site.

The teams left Northern Albania on the 16th of March and started clearance on the 17th. When the operations finished on the 25th of April, they had cleared and released 675 houses, found 606 UXO, 12 Fuses and 1000 pieces of small ammunition. The efforts meant that 810.608 m2 of land and 12.700 m2 road had been surveyed

The Albanian ministry of defence has on several occasions thanked DCA for the quick response and the assistance given, in the accident which was the worst explosion seen in Albania.