‘Dark Story’: Eyewitnesses Speak About Fire On Shevchenko Boulevard, Minsk

For an inexplicable reason, the fire spread from the second to the fourth floor immediately.

Tochka.by journalists visited the site of the explosion and fire on Shevchenko Boulevard in Minsk and talked with the residents of the same house where the incident happened.

The gas issue needs to be clarified right away: according to the residents, about five years ago their house was overhauled, and the “gas guys” forced everyone to buy new gas stoves.

“Daughter rushed into my bedroom: mom, there’s fire!”

Lyudmila lives on the fifth floor, that is, three floors above the apartment where the explosion occurred. According to her, it was quiet at night, everyone was sleeping, and then there was a sudden noise.

“At first I thought someone had dropped something heavy. And then my daughter rushed into my bedroom screaming “Mom, there’s fire!” I went over to the window — there were clouds of black smoke,” the woman says.

The rescue guys called and knocked for everyone to urgently go out into the street, but the women were already coming on their own.

“We took our animals and ran. In addition to me and my daughter, the dog Jesse and the cat Lucy were also in the apartment.”

According to the woman, an elderly couple lived on the second floor, both over 60, already retired.

“They didn’t have children. The apartment was clean and tidy. They never quarreled with the neighbors, in general, they were decent people.”

For some inexplicable reason, the fire spread from the second floor to the fourth floor, Lyudmila shares her observations.

“There, on the fourth, also a good family lived. The husband and wife were 35-40 years old, the daughter was 10 years old, and their youngest son just recently started school.

According to the woman, both pensioners from the second floor, their neighbor on the floor, as well as a married couple with a daughter from the fourth floor died in the fire.

This was confirmed by a Tochka.by source in emergency services. And he clarified that the boy born in 2014 from the apartment on the fourth floor is now in intensive care.

“I will make sure that no one gets the apartment”

The correspondent of Tochka.by talked to another tenant of this house, who knew the deceased pensioners well. She introduced herself as Valiantsina.

In the apartment where, according to the preliminary version, the explosion of domestic gas occurred, lived a couple of pensioners, Ivan and Valiantsina. The woman had a disability degree, and the man had cancer.

“They both were clean and tidy, independent good people,” says Valiantsina.

And almost immediately she started talking about the difficult situation in which the deceased pensioners found themselves.

“He passed the apartment to his niece under a deed of gift, so that she could take care of them, but she started kicking them out of the house,” the interlocutor shares the details.

Valiantsina claims that the deceased man at some point could not stand it, and threatened to solve the housing problem in his own way.

“I will make sure that no one gets it [the apartment – Tochka.by],” a neighbor quoted Ivan as saying.

Fire on Shevchenko Boulevard

An explosion of household gas occurred in a residential building on Shevchenko Boulevard in Minsk at about 3.30 on Saturday, December 17, the press service of the Investigatory Committee told Tochka.by.

“Six people died, including one child. More than 20 people were evacuated from a residential building by employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations,” the source said.

The first rescuing units arrived at the call site in four minutes. They recorded open flames and heavy smoke in the apartment on the second floor.

“People from the windows of the apartments above asked for help,” the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations specified.

According to preliminary data, on the second floor, a fire broke out in two apartments at once on a total area of about 40 square meters.

Rescuers evacuated 12 people, including three children. All the rescued were handed over to the doctors. Hospitalization was required for three victims with preliminary diagnoses of poisoning by combustion products, thermal inhalation injury, and burns.

Another 10 people were also evacuated from adjacent and overlying apartments.

The bodies of six people were found directly in the burning apartments, among them was a child. The doctors pronounced them dead.

The casualties remain in the ICU

About 9.30 am, information about the condition of the casualties appeared. All three are in the intensive care unit, the condition of all is serious, the child is connected to a lung ventilator.

Doctors are doing everything possible to stabilize the condition of the patients.

Criminal case initiated

The Main Investigation Department of the Investigatory Committee opened a criminal case under Part 3 of Article 304 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus “Violation of fire safety requirements, resulting in the death of two or more persons through negligence”.

This article provides for a maximum punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to seven years.