The mystery of the explosion in Efremov: what did the apartment of the dead poultry workers smell like

The owner claims that she checked everything on the eve of the emergency

Novosibirsk mourns for 13 victims of the gas explosion, and against this background, the tragedy in the city of Efremov, Tula region, faded into the background. There, on February 7, a whole entrance also exploded from a gas leak and 8 people died. Four of them were employees of a local poultry farm and lived in an apartment that their boss paid for. “MK” became aware of new details of the tragedy.

As it turned out, during the household gas explosion in apartment No. 13, where, according to preliminary data, an explosion occurred, there were five people. Three of them died on the spot, two more are in serious condition in the hospital. We were able to speak with the owner of this property.

– This was my and my mother’s apartment, we are both owners, – explained Raisa Kuznetsova. – This three-room apartment was received by my parents when I was still a child, when they were evicted from the village of Skorovarovka. Then my father died, and my mother and I privatized housing. I have not lived there for forty years already, my mother and son and I live at a different address. About a year and a half ago, I began to take it. Made an ad. There were different residents. And before the new year, a certain Anna Igorevna called me, said that she was some kind of boss at the Volovsky poultry farm. She said that, they say, the apartment is needed for her employees. And all my life I worked as a manager at a local plant in a food processing plant. So we agreed, and I passed. That’s all! How many of them were there, who specifically, I was not interested. It was only after this explosion that I learned that many people had died. Every day now they are summoned to the investigative committee, I go on the case as a victim. All residents and witnesses are being interviewed.

– How long ago was the gas equipment checked in your apartment?

– The last time at the end of November 2021. Everything was fine. Why is it said that the explosion took place in my apartment? Nothing is known yet, no one knows. And I was there on February 6, literally on the eve of the tragedy. After all, I often went there, checked everything – sometimes once every two weeks, sometimes once a month. Anna and I immediately agreed that I would come, and the keys were the only one I had. She always came in the morning, checked the mailbox, and then went into the apartment. Everything was always clean, good, there were no complaints about the tenants. I usually first went into the bathroom (suddenly where the water leaks), and then into the kitchen. So on February 6, I checked everything – the gas stove and the water heater were clean, I didn’t feel any smell of gas. After all, I have a new column (I installed it in 2019). There were no residents of the apartment that day, and I never saw them. There were no complaints from neighbors either. Anna Igorevna paid me for renting housing – seven thousand rubles a month and plus a communal apartment. This amount did not depend on the number of residents. All payments for the rent were only through her. I paid regularly. I wrote to her via WhatsApp the cost of utilities, which ran up the meter, and she transferred money to the card.

– What was left of your apartment after the explosion?

– Nothing. She is completely destroyed. I didn’t even know that so many people died there at the time of this explosion. Horror … I have diabetes, so now I can barely walk, my blood sugar has risen, and every day they call me to the investigative committee. I’m holding on. It is terrible and painful to see and hear all this.

– Yes, all these people were employees of our poultry farm – Sergey Garanin, Andrey Morozov, Evgeny Plaksin and Pavel Sobolev, – Anna Igorevna, the head of one of the factory departments, explained to MK. – Two workers died on the spot, as well as the wife of Evgeny Plaksin, Alexander. Yevgeny himself survived and is now in a serious condition in the hospital, our employee Pavel Sobolev was also injured. They lived there recently. Somewhere since January of this year, Garanin was the first to move in, and the rest moved in later. I helped them all settle down, I myself looked at the apartment, checked. There was no gas leak, they did not drink, they behaved well, they worked at our factory from time to time, that is, all the men were loaders. We will provide all the necessary assistance to the families of the dead and injured. I am also interrogated every day. There are no more forces.

As it became known, tenants have already returned to the second, third and fourth entrances of this house. Currently, work is underway to restore the pipeline. The first entrance, where the explosion occurred, is going to be dismantled and removed completely. But people do not believe that now in such a house, where everything “breathes in order”, they can continue to live.