‘We Were Sleeping, Then Suddenly Explosion Thundered, Windows Started Bursting’

New details regarding the large-scale fire in a residential building in Minsk have surfaced.

“That was precisely an explosion”. What is known about the fire in a residential building in Minsk, where 6 people died, including an 11-year-old girl.

A powerful explosion and fire occurred on Shevchenko Boulevard in Minsk on December 17, around 03.30 am.

According to the press service of the Investigatory Committee, as a result of the fire in a residential building, 6 people died, including 1 child.

Three people were hospitalized with poisoning from combustion products and burns. As Radio Svaboda reports, all three victims remain in the ICU.

“Everyone is in a serious condition, the child is connected to a lung ventilator. The doctors are doing everything possible to stabilize their condition. According to preliminary information, all the victims were poisoned by combustion products, had thermal inhalation lesions, and burns, the Ministry of Health reported.

The rescuers also evacuated more than 20 people from adjacent and overlying apartments.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that the fire occurred in two apartments on a total area of about 40 square meters. The flame that came from the corner apartment was so strong that the outer walls were sooty up to the last, fifth floor of the Khrushchev-era residential building, the Minsk-Novosti agency writes.

Household gas explosion or “flammable liquid vapor flash ignition”?

The Investigatory Committee opened a criminal case under Part 3 of Article 304 (violation of fire safety requirements, negligently resulting in the death of two or more persons) of the Criminal Code of Belarus upon the fact. This is punishable by up to seven years in prison.

By the way, initially the Investigatory Committee reported that the cause was a domestic gas explosion. This statement was later removed from the report.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in addition to the version of a gas explosion, a version is currently being worked out that the cause of the fire was an ignition of vapors of a flammable liquid. This is evidenced by containers found in one of the apartments, in which such liquid may have been stored.

It is known that Minister of Emergency Situations Vadzim Siniauski, Chairman of the Minsk City Executive Committee Uladzimir Kukharau, the leadership of the Investigatory Committee, the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Minsk City Executive Committee, the Minsk City Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the city prosecutor's office, the leadership of the district and other departments went to the scene. A commission for emergency situations of the region has been created. Psychologists are working with casualties and eyewitnesses.

What eyewitnesses say

Onlìner learned that three people from the family who lived on the fourth floor died in the fire at once — a mother, father and their 11-year-old daughter. The youngest son is now in the hospital.

“The explosion itself occurred at about 3.15 am. And it was an explosion, not an ordinary fire. Double-glazed windows in a neighboring house shook. It seemed to me that at first one apartment exploded, the services arrived quickly, but when they managed to put out the epicenter, the second apartment caught fire. I saw the rescuers evacuating people: someone was being carried, someone was being led out by the arms, someone was walking by himself in his underwear. Rescuers climbed ladders into the affected apartments, one of the eyewitnesses of the incident told Zerkalo.

Another resident of a neighboring house said that she woke up from the smell of burning in her apartment and already from the window she saw that the neighboring house was on fire: flames were flaring out of a window.

According to her, at 4 am there were already different services, firefighters and doctors at the scene.

Another witness told the Minsk-news agency how everything happened last night.

“Everything happened right after 3 am. We were sleeping, when suddenly an explosion thundered. The windows began to burst into pieces, there was a lot of screaming. All the neighbors got up. It's very hard to remember. My husband was leaving to work, he said, a real nightmare was happening,” says the woman.

The Minskaya Pravda reports that as soon as people from neighboring houses noticed the fire, they began to go out into the street and honk so that those in the burning premises woke up and left the building as quickly as possible.