The Ministry of Emergency Situations named the easiest way to avoid fires that become more frequent in the cold

The first cold weather arrived and fires began, claiming the lives of children and adults. They are most often caused by heating equipment. Rescue firefighters told MK when heat becomes destructive and what are the features of detectors that could save people’s lives.

A terrible disaster occurred on October 24 at night in a village in the Mytishchi urban district – two members of a large family, a young mother and a 15-year-old daughter, died in a fire in one of the private houses. “During the fire extinguishing, the bodies of two dead (a woman and a child) were found on the attic floor; a man and two children managed to escape, but they received I-II degree burns and were also poisoned by combustion products,” the press service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported. in the Moscow region.

The cause of the tragedy was a malfunction of electrical heating equipment that was installed on the terrace of the house.

As MK wrote about this tragedy, at night the head of the family smelled the acrid smell of smoke. The heater was turned on in one of the rooms and there appeared to be a short circuit. The small children were sleeping on the first floor; their father managed to take them outside. He was no longer able to go up to the second floor to fetch his wife and eldest daughter because of the strong smoke and flames that were spreading throughout the house… They died.

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reminds that with the onset of cold weather, fires occur 30% more often. On its resources, the agency regularly warns about the rules for handling electric heating devices, but not everyone reads this information.

Rescuers constantly say that fire detectors are the easiest way to avoid trouble today. After a recent terrible fire in Lyubertsy, which killed two little girls, the department reported: “A private house in Lyubertsy was not equipped with a fire detector. If he had, he would have reacted to the smoke. A few sips of acrid smoke became fatal for the children.”

MK talked to those who directly save people’s lives during fires.

“With the arrival of cold weather, the number of fires always increases, firefighters are so accustomed to this that we don’t even think about it,” rescuer-firefighter from the Republic of Tatarstan Rashit told MK. – Heating devices are dangerous not only in themselves, but also because they put a strain on the wiring in the house. Or if they are of poor quality, it can lead to a short circuit. Therefore, the heater sometimes becomes the cause of a fire, despite the fact that the fire itself may arise in a completely different place. And old wiring is cited as the reason.

– What can you say about the installation of fire alarms?

– I myself installed them for free in large families by order of management, it was some kind of social program. I myself have not personally met people who were saved by a detector (I won’t lie), I sometimes meet those saved by a detector in the reports of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. True, there is one inconvenience with it: until the moment when it is really needed, it can bring some inconvenience. It operates very loudly when cooking, and also gives loud signals when the battery is low.

There is a funny incident associated with detectors. Rashit has a short wife. Once, when he was on the night shift, his wife wrote to him in a panic that their fire alarm was “squealing” loudly. Because of her height, the wife could not reach it, and still did not know how to turn it off. She had to hit him with an umbrella from a stool. The detector flew off the wall along with a piece of wallpaper. “This is how it happens,” Rashit smiled. It turned out that the device gave a signal that it was discharged. As experts told us, the sounds the detectors make are very different, depending on the model: squeak, siren, voice notification. For Rashit it was a loud squeak.

However, the fireman admitted that this thing was necessary. His family bought an apartment in a building where the developer immediately supplied fire detectors and a fire hydrant with an apartment hose and barrel included in each apartment.

“I can say about the detector, as Lao Tzu once put it: “Even if you need a sword only once in your life, you must always wear it,” summed up Rashit.

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reminds that the most common cause of fires in cold weather is the improper use of electric heaters, gas and furnace equipment. Here are simple rules from the department.

First: use only working gas equipment. It needs to be checked and maintained regularly. “Do not leave the gas valve open – close it tightly and completely after use.” Only licensed gas specialists can carry out work to replace gas equipment.

Second: do not forget that furniture and other objects cannot be placed close to gas appliances (safe distance is at least 20 cm). Third: do not move anywhere from the stove while cooking or heating food, whether it is on a gas or electric stove. Fourth: do not use homemade or faulty electrical appliances. Don’t forget to turn them off after work!

Fifth: in houses with a stove, you need to periodically ventilate the room, check the serviceability of the ventilation and the stove damper. And the sixth tip: install a fire detector at home, which we have already discussed above.