"The tragedy of this situation lay in the extremely short time frame — from the moment the gas service was called," said Ilze Petersone-Godmane, chairwoman of the board of AS "Gaso," about the gas explosion in Riga on Bauskas Street during a broadcast on TV24, as reported by nra.lv.
When asked whether the employee of "Gaso" should have immediately declared a state of emergency and called for the evacuation of the building when a resident opened the apartment door and saw that all the gas alarms were screaming and flashing, Petersone-Godmane replied that this is exactly what happened. The gas service arrived eight minutes after the call. It then took another ten minutes for the "Gaso" employees to check all the floors of the building and reach the necessary one.
At the same time, the State Fire and Rescue Service and the State Police were called to the scene, as only with their help could access to the apartment be gained. These services also took on the evacuation of the residents.
"But just one and a half minutes later, an explosion occurred. So the timing turned out to be extremely unfavorable in this situation and, most likely, it was the decisive factor in the formation of the gas-air mixture explosion. The explosion could have been avoided if there had been an immediate opportunity to ventilate," noted Ilze Petersone-Godmane.
Leave a comment