People Pleaded for Help: Details Emerge on Kuzminki Fire

Yesterday, January 25, a fire occurred in the Kuzminki microdistrict of Omsk. On the seventh floor of the building at Vzlyotnaya Street 13/1, an apartment caught fire. The report of the incident was received by the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MChS) at 7:14. As the department reported, 96 residents had to evacuate on their own. Firefighters rescued 29 people, including 8 children. At the scene, 35 MChS employees and nine units of equipment were working. Judging by the footage published by the department, the apartment was completely engulfed in fire.

The department provided details on the rescue of residents. One of the Omsk residents smelled the smoke. He ran out into the stairwell and started calling for help.

«Special equipment faced difficulties approaching the building due to chaotic parking. The articulated ladder could not get close to the building. People on balconies pleaded for help. Gas and smoke protection servicemen inspected floors from the 7th to the 19th and, using rescue devices, saved residents, including small children under one year old. A heating point was organized for everyone in a special bus,» said Stanislav Matskevich, chief of the guard of the 24th fire and rescue unit.

The fire covered 47 square meters. The apartment was completely burned out, the balcony on the seventh floor, and the balcony on the floor above was also damaged, as well as the cladding on the eighth and ninth floors.

«We pulled a hose line through the stairwell, and from the outside, we supplied a powerful monitor nozzle. Between the wall and the cladding tiles of the high-rise, a layer of mineral wool was laid, which could become a conductor for the fire. To prevent re-ignition, we had to open the cladding in the area of the eighth and ninth floors. Unfortunately, at this stage, we urgently needed an articulated ladder, but due to the courtyard crowded with cars, it could not approach the building. The extinguishing was complicated by frosty weather. The evacuees, seeing thick white steam in the stairwell, mistook it for smoke, got scared, and stopped, which created additional difficulties,» noted the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Open burning on Vzlyotnaya was eliminated at 8:28. The preliminary cause of the fire could have been a short circuit in the wiring on the balcony.

Unfortunately, there were casualties. Four people were hospitalized. One of them — a woman — sustained 85% burns to her body. Today, NGS55.RU learned that the Omsk woman died. The others were released for outpatient treatment.

In the neighborhood«s house chat, local residents noted that all upper floors were smoked out, and the lower ones were flooded with water. After the incident, Omsk residents had to wash the soot from the stairwell.