Over the weekend, a woman died in the Valmiera region — most likely due to negligence: she lit the stove, left the door open, and suffocated in the smoke. Similar incidents had happened to her in the past, and neighbors had often had to take on the role of rescuers to protect her, reports the Degpunktā program (TV3). The question arises — did the Kocēni municipality do everything possible to help the elderly woman living in a municipal apartment?
When the residents of the building stepped into the hallway, it became immediately clear — they needed to call the firefighters: the stairwell was filled with smoke. The source of the fire was not hard for the rescuers to find — it was the stove that the elderly neighbor had lit.
"Her stove was broken, yes, she had a stove — about two square meters burned," said local resident Ralph.
The rescuers found the pensioner lying right in her apartment — unfortunately, she had been poisoned by smoke and passed away. Besides the distress, the local residents are plagued by the feeling that this could not have ended differently — the pensioner had long had a habit of lighting the stove and leaving it open. This had already had consequences: a year ago, Ralph and his brother had to rescue her from smoke.
"She had some illness. She set her clothes on fire, then the firefighters brought her down — hoping it would be more comfortable there," Ralph said.
After that first fire, the local government decided to relocate the woman to a more convenient and accessible apartment on the first floor. However, the problems did not end, and the locals are asking the question — why was she left alone and unsupervised?
"Her home was a terrible mess. She almost burned the whole house down once. The local government did nothing, they didn’t come to check," claimed a neighbor.
However, the administration of the Kocēni municipality paints a different picture — they claim that they visited the woman regularly, often together with social service representatives, and occasionally arranged home care services. Communicating with the resident was not easy:
"Age, everything together! She did everything her way — in the summer, for example, she decided to go into the woods for berries and mushrooms. The stove is lit — she goes away. At the same time, she was of sound mind and refused everything. We said we would go to the hospital for tests — 'No, don’t, leave me alone!'".
Nevertheless, last week, the local government, together with the social service, managed to persuade the woman to move to a nursing home. She was already preparing for the move, but fate intervened: "And finally, she agreed. The last week she was so cheerful — we had never seen her like that. The outcome is quite sad."
Most likely, the Kocēni municipality will restore the apartment, and a new person will move in under the supervision of the social service.
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