While some ice-cream makers in Hungary are melting from financial distress, the World Proteins Kft cheese factory in Körmend, western Hungary, was reduced to a bubbling brown heap by fire on Friday. The blaze caused some Ft 3 billion (€12 million) worth of damage, destroying the 4,000 square meter plant and its storage yard, as well as 22 tons of butter, 40 tons of vegetable fat, 150 tons of casein, 80 tons of cheese, 100 tons of cheese powder and hundreds of tons of packaging material. It took most of a day for the 85 firefighters and 22 fire engines to completely extinguish the fire, but there were no injuries. According to a news report on Hungarian state television and the above video posted on Körmend.hu, the fire was caused by flames erupting from an oil furnace used to heat water. The Dutch owners of the company are willing to rebuild the plant and the local government is prepared to offer financial support, mayor István Bebes said yesterday.
