The investigation into the explosion in Rahova: the announcement made now by the prosecutors, three months after the deflagration

Prosecutors from the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Bucharest Court of Appeal announced on Friday that they have extended the criminal investigation in the case of the explosion in a block of flats in the Rahova district against the electricity distribution company and an employee of the gas company.

“In the continuation of the investigations in the case regarding the explosion that happened in the morning of 17.10.2025 on the 2nd floor of block 32 in Vicina str., no. 3, sector 5, Bucharest, we inform the public that its consequences, at present, consist in the death of four people, the bodily injury of seven people, the destruction or rendering unusable of a number of 54 apartments, as well as the destruction or degradation of a number of 36 cars”, stated the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Bucharest Court of Appeal, writes News.ro.

A powerful explosion occurred on October 17, in Sector 5 of the Capital. The initial balance showed that three people lost their lives and another 20 were injured, of which 15 were then transported to the hospital.

The case prosecutor ordered the extension of the criminal prosecution against a legal entity and against a natural person in the file, for culpable destruction that resulted in a disaster.

The company against which the criminal investigation was extended is the electricity distribution operator about which the prosecutors say that, from 2023, when it took over the ownership of the electricity distribution network in the vicinity of the building, and until the day of the explosion, “culpably did not properly fulfill its legal obligations, in the sense that it did not monitor the safety of the electricity distribution network and did not operate it in compliance with the technical norms in force, with the consequence of a defect in the electrical distribution network that led to the perforation of the gas supply pipe of the building in Bucharest, street 1, bl. 2, sector 5, which led to an accumulation of gas in the mentioned building and to the occurrence of an explosion on 17.10.2025 at 09:08.

The natural person is an emergency intervention agent of the natural gas distribution company, who, “culpably, did not properly fulfill his duties provided for by internal rules approved at the level of the aforementioned operator, his inactions entering into the causal chain of events that led to the explosion on 17.10.2025”.

“Thus, the natural person in question did not identify the type of defect in the natural gas supply system, although he had the obligation to do so, he carried out superficial checks, not having identified all the places mentioned in the work instructions and did not take the safety measures provided by the same work instructions. By failing to carry out the checks and take the measures required by the work instructions in case of emergency interventions, this natural person maintained the state of danger of the buildings in Vicina street located in the vicinity of the natural gas distribution network, where a defect was identified consisting of the existence of cracks, not preventing the accumulation of gas and the explosion from the morning of 17.10.2025 at the building in Vicina street, no. 1, bl. 32”, the Prosecutor's Office reported.