Early Saturday morning, rescuers rushed to Latgales Street in Kengarags — there, a fire broke out in one of the apartments of a multi-apartment building, a resident was injured, and 15 people were evacuated. From conversations with residents, it can be concluded that the cause of the fire was quite atypical, reports the show Degpunktā (TV3).
Residents of Kengarags woke up on Saturday to the sight of a burning apartment on the third floor. The safe distance allowed them to capture the event, but everything felt different in the burning building.
Flames and smoke were rising from the window up to the apartments on the fourth and fifth floors. Andrei, who lives one floor above, says he will never forget the events of that morning.
"At 7:00 AM, I looked out the kitchen window — I thought, what’s happening? I opened the window — fire! I called the firefighters, woke everyone up, broke down the door of that elderly woman whose place caught fire, the flames were already reaching me. The firefighters arrived," the man recounts.
With the arrival of the rescuers, Andrei's heroism came to an end — the rescue service evacuated both residents of the burning apartment: an elderly woman and her husband.
After that, the rescuers began extinguishing the fire. Due to the spread of flames, in addition to the apartment itself on the third floor, they had to carefully check the neighboring ones — especially Andrei's apartment. The young man felt that more care could have been taken with his front door.
"They broke down the door. They had already extinguished everything — we were just standing here. We informed them: here are all the owners with keys, we will open it. No. They ignored us and broke down all the doors, damn it," Andrei complains.
The anxiety and emotions are understandable — the residents were not the cause of the fire, and now they have to replace their doors. However, the rescuers urge understanding: if the fire has spread and threatens those nearby, a decision that can save lives or property is more important than a lock on a door.
While Andrei and the others waited for the rescuers to finish their work, neighbor Leonid decided not to freeze outside. He and his family took advantage of the early and unexpected morning to go out for breakfast.
"They knocked on the door, and we were asked to evacuate. With a small child, we got in the car and went to 'McDonald’s', and then returned and waited for the firefighters to allow us back into the apartment," Leonid recounts.
Other apartments and neighbors were not harmed by the fire. Meanwhile, the apartment on the third floor was completely burned out, and its residents will not return there. According to Andrei, the most likely cause of the fire could be the battery of the woman's wheelchair, which caught fire.
The state police partially confirm the neighbor's words: that morning, the elderly woman's husband plugged in the battery of her wheelchair to charge, and it suddenly exploded in his hands — which caused the fire. However, the police continue to investigate the incident.
