Coach and Children Escape Burning Apartment in Motovilikha
A few days ago, a fire broke out in a Stalin-era building where the Molot cinema once operated during Soviet times. Well-known Perm coach Olga Alferova and her three children ran outside barefoot. Their apartment burned down in literally two minutes. Olga told 59.RU about that day and asked Perm residents for help.
Everything We Had…
The fire in the Stalin-era building at 40 Lebedeva Street occurred on the afternoon of 31 January. The EMERCOM of Perm Krai reported that furniture and belongings caught fire in the third-floor apartment. Fortunately, no one was injured.
The woman who wrote the message requested outerwear and shoes for a girl 146 cm tall with shoe size 34-35, a boy 164 cm tall with shoe size 38-39, and their mother — her clothing size is 42-44, she wears shoe size 38-39.
Cleaning supplies to wash the soot off the apartment, or money for them, were also needed.
Escaped Barefoot
Olga Alferova is the director and coach of ballroom dance at the PRO-Dance club in Perm and a member of the Dance Sport Federation of Perm Krai. She told a 59.RU journalist that the fire engulfed the apartment instantly. The cause of the fire is still unclear.
«I and the children were home, my husband had left,» the woman told 59.RU. «I can«t imagine what would have happened if the children had been home alone. I was lying in the room, then I went to the kitchen to pour coffee. When I came back, there was open fire blazing in the room. It was running along the curtains and the suspended ceiling. I tried to put out the fire, but everything smoked up, and my son started pulling me out, saying: »You«ll suffocate»».
Olga admitted to 59.RU that she had always wanted to have a fire extinguisher at home and deeply regretted never buying one. She believes that if she had had one, the tragedy could have been avoided.
«We ran outside barefoot and called the firefighters,» the coach told 59.RU. «They arrived in 30 seconds, I am very grateful to them».
However, Olga says, the firefighters could not drive into the courtyard through the gates because they were too narrow.
«They couldn«t turn around: there were snowdrifts and cars everywhere,» Olga recounts. «And the distance was considerable, our courtyard is very large. The firefighters had to assemble a big hose and drag it to the entrance, and then to the third-floor apartment. All of this took time. For some reason we didn»t put on shoes or anything, we were barefoot, some neighbors tried to warm me up, hid me in stairwells».
«Incredible People!»
Friends, parents of the children she teaches sport dance, and the Cheer Sport Federation of Perm Krai, where her daughter does cheerleading, came to Olga«s aid.
«Incredible people!» Olga exclaims. «They helped us everywhere. Within a day they raised money for us to move, they rented an apartment for us. The parents of my students boarded up the windows in the burned apartment with plywood. They collected money for cleaning the apartment, but we can«t start cleaning yet because the apartment is mortgaged and the insurance company has to inspect everything. Two of my children study at Gymnasium No. 5, and one at Trajectory school. There they also collected things for us and are still bringing them. My eldest son is taking the OGE (Basic State Exam) this year and attends paid preparatory courses at the gymnasium. Teachers wrote to me: »You don«t have to pay anything for now, let him continue preparing for exams.» That«s very humane».
Olga had to buy a new phone, create new social media accounts, and restore access to Gosuslugi (state services portal) at the MFC (multifunctional center). Her family still needs financial help. They have to pay for the rented apartment and the mortgage on the burned apartment, and they will also need funds for major renovation.
Believes in the Best
According to Olga, firefighters conducted an investigation, but they cannot yet say exactly why the fire broke out. They suspect that a power strip or wiring where appliances and equipment were connected could have ignited. The walls of the apartment, says the coach, had wooden lathing embedded in them, and some partitions were made of flammable drywall, which caught fire easily.
Olga hopes that everything will work out for her family and believes in the best.
«An amazing fact: when I entered the large room, which was completely devastated, right in the middle of the room on top of a pile of ash lay an almost untouched Gospel,» the woman shared with 59.RU.
Earlier, we looked into whether the recent fires in Perm are related to grid overload.
