A large-scale fire erupted in the Northern Industrial Zone in the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv Wednesday afternoon.

The fire raged for about 1.5 hours before it was put out, damaging storage facilities of a Greek-owned firm. No people were hurt by the conflagration, BNR reported.

According to Tanas Marudas, a representative of the Greek owner, the fire was caused by an arson committed by three Roma men who set ablaze a pile of trash in the yard of the industrial plant in their search for scrap iron that they can sell.

This claim was neither confirmed, nor denied by the fire brigade in Plovdiv but chief inspector Vasil Dimitrov did assure the local population that the people's health was not in trouble regardless of the thick smoke caused by the fire.

The Plovdiv industrial zone fire is in the second incident in one day in which Roma were suspected of arson, after Roma kids set on fire their ghetto in the Orlandovtsi quarter of Sofia.