Causes of deadly blast at Bucharest apartment building still not clear, prosecutors say

The Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Bucharest Court of Appeal, which is handling the case regarding the deadly explosion in the apartment block in the Rahova neighborhood of Bucharest, announced on Monday, October 20, that there is no evidence of the use of explosive material. Gas leaks may have caused the powerful blast, but no definitive conclusions have yet been reached.

Three people died and 15 others were injured in the explosion last Friday, October 17. The authorities are still trying to pinpoint the cause of the explosion, and an on-site investigation is taking place in parallel with the hearings of individuals.

The file opened following the explosion in the Rahova neighborhood apartment block concerns negligent destruction resulting in a disaster, according to the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Bucharest Court of Appeal. The on-site investigation is conducted in the presence of specialists from the State Construction Inspectorate and “in compliance with their recommendations, given the condition of the building,” prosecutors said, cited by News.ro.

“At this stage of the investigation, there are no conclusions regarding the causes of the explosion; these will be established through specialized technical expertise, and upon completion, information of public interest will be communicated,” prosecutors commented.

The investigation involves judicial police officers from the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police – Criminal Investigation Directorate, the Forensic Service, the Homicide Service, and the Injuries and Manslaughter Service within the General Police Directorate of Bucharest, as well as specialists from the National Institute of Criminalistics of the Romanian Police.

In the meantime, Romanian fiscal watchdog ANAF announced that the company Ampropertyconstruct SRL (AMPCgaz), which intervened to remove a seal and restart the gas supply to the building before the explosion, was legally inactive since August 2025.

ANAF declared AMPCgaz inactive because the company was not operating at the declared fiscal address. As a result, when it sent technicians to the building to remove a seal placed by gas network operator Distrigaz on October 16, the day before the explosion, it was operating “outside the legal fiscal framework.”