Ice in apartments, radiators burst as Karabash heating outage continues
Karabash residents have faced freezing conditions in their apartments for several days.
Residents of several apartment buildings in Karabash are entering their fourth day without heating and hot water due to a failure on the heating main. Walls in apartments have frozen, and radiators have burst in some stairwells. The mayor«s office told 74.RU that all services are working in an enhanced mode, with additional utility crews arriving from other cities. Four temporary shelters have been set up to accommodate freezing residents.
Apartment walls are covered with frost due to the prolonged lack of heating.
We contacted residents of Karabash. They clarified that many buildings on Metallurgov and Komsomolskaya streets remain without heat and hot water.
Burst radiators in stairwells have resulted in rusty water flooding the areas.
«We have a four-month-old baby, and the apartment is three degrees Celsius (37°F),» complained a resident of building 15/2 on Metallurgov Street to a 74.RU journalist. «In all these days, our building specifically has not had heat or water even once. In some buildings, they periodically supply it, then cut it off. Maybe they»ve connected three buildings at most, and even then the heating isn«t at full capacity. In our apartment, there is ice on the walls and windows, everything is covered in ice. And today, a radiator in the first-floor stairwell burst. Luckily, my parents have a private house and we go there to warm up, periodically coming to the apartment to check that nothing is leaking.»
The walls in numerous apartments have frozen solid during the outage.
«We have hot water, but no heating. The apartment is a corner unit, the walls are leaking throughout the entire apartment, in the children»s room it«s four degrees Celsius (39°F), the corners have already frozen,» said Yulia from building 13/2 on Metallurgov Street.
Residents are using personal heaters to warm their freezing homes.
«The buildings they connected are already flooded, radiators have burst in the stairwells. In our building, there is absolutely no water at all, no heat,» said Natalya from Metallurgov Street 17/5.
Deputy Governor Andrey Faleichik provided an update on the ongoing restoration efforts.
«My mother at 23 Komsomolskaya Street has been without heat for four days and without hot and cold water. And it»s the same in almost every apartment building,« said Alisa. »My mother bought a heater and warms the rooms one by one. She gets water either from stores or from neighboring buildings where there is still water. But the pipes are freezing, and soon the neighboring buildings will probably have no water either. The city«s utility services cannot handle this many buildings.»
Investigators are examining the condition of the utility infrastructure in Karabash.
For the duration of the emergency, residents have been offered accommodation in warming centers with hot meals and medical support, set up at schools No. 1 and No. 2. Three modular warm tents from the emergency rescue unit «RMK Poisk» have also been installed (28 Nakhimov St., 4 Metallurgov St. on the territory of the Med shopping center).
The administration of Karabash reported that 15 crews are working to fix the accident, including employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations from Troitsk and Kasli, as well as specialists from «Karabashmed» and local management companies. In total, 99 people and five pieces of equipment are involved, with additional crews brought in from Kasli, Kyshtym, and Chebarkul. Deputy Governor Andrey Faleichik arrived at the scene.
«As of 14:00, heat has been supplied to 18 buildings, and 13 more are being connected — the launch is being done in stages. We are doing everything to restore heating as soon as possible,» commented Deputy Governor Andrey Faleichik. «After the launch, we will conduct a door-to-door check: we will clarify with residents possible airlocks in the radiators and other non-standard situations. Further work will be carried out by the management company.»
Meanwhile, the prosecutor«s office has initiated an administrative case against the resource-supplying organization for violating the regime of providing utility services to the population (Article 7.23 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).
«In addition, the materials of the prosecutor»s inspection have been sent to the investigative body to assess the actions of officials of the resource-supplying organization, management companies, and the city administration, and to decide on initiating criminal cases under Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (providing services that do not meet safety requirements) and Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (negligence),« said Natalya Mamaeva, senior assistant to the regional prosecutor.
The Investigative Committee has initiated a criminal case on negligence.
«According to the investigation, from January 20 to 23, unidentified employees of the Karabash city district administration did not take proper measures to ensure the supply of heating to 31 residential buildings, seven commercial facilities, and two educational institutions in Karabash, thereby creating a real threat to the safety of life and health of 3.6 thousand citizens. Currently, selective inspections of apartments in a number of buildings and social facilities are being conducted, with simultaneous measurement of the temperature of the installed heat carriers and in the premises,» commented the regional office of the Investigative Committee.
Let us recall that residents of Karabash started complaining about the heating and hot water outage on January 20. Then two districts — more than 30 residential buildings — were left without heat. On the evening of January 21, the authorities reported on the elimination of the heating main failure.
