He 'smoked himself' to his own demise… Neighbors and police were powerless until the inevitable happened

Photo: скриншот видео TV3

For over 10 years, residents of the apartment building on Tautas Street in Daugavpils lived in constant tension due to one neighbor. The man regularly consumed alcohol, and his 'drinking buddies' constantly occupied the stairwell. Locals say they lived like on needles, and now one of their fears has come true — a fire broke out in the man's apartment, reports the Degpunktā program (TV3).

Firefighters used a hammer to break open the front door, and a thick cloud of smoke immediately poured into the stairwell. After a while, they carried out a man of about 60 years — no signs of life were found. There could be no hope for salvation: a neighbor reported that about two hours had passed since she first smelled smoke.

“I started calling him — he often didn’t answer. I knocked hard. Then at 5:10 PM I smelled smoke again, but I was ventilating. He still didn’t open. I thought — what’s going on? I had to leave at 5:30 PM. I went to a neighbor to see if she smelled anything. She said — yes, but it seemed to have aired out. I left, said: I’m going to a friend’s — keep an eye on the situation. And then… I had just managed to take off my clothes there — she calls me and says that smoke is billowing. My legs went weak — I ran home. I was already going upstairs, and she was coming down, asking: are there sirens? Yes. It’s us,” said Vera, a neighbor of the deceased.

Neighbors didn’t speculate long about the cause of the fire. The man constantly smoked in the apartment and had a close relationship with alcohol. It was only a matter of time before someone would get hurt due to such a lifestyle.

“He probably inhaled smoke because he was drunk. I think he was smoking, extinguished a cigarette in the sofa. Everything started smoldering because there was no access to oxygen. It smoldered for a long time — I noticed it at 4:30 PM, the neighbor at 5:00 PM. (…) When the guys broke down the door, they saw flames because oxygen came in — and immediately fire,” the neighbor recounted.

The man had lived in this building for about ten years. Alone, without family. But by no means lonely — friends visited him every week, causing headaches for the neighbors.

“He was constantly drinking. I told him: 'Misha…' Well, what can you do, dealing with homeless people… And at night, homeless people came, drank at night, argued. You could hear everything through the wall. (Degpunktā: How did you live with this?) Terribly. Like on needles. (Degpunktā: Did you contact the police?) Yes, I went with a neighbor from the fifth floor. They said: there are many alcoholics. So what? Until a fire happened,” Vera recounts.

The man’s apartment was completely destroyed, and the burned belongings have already been removed. Neighbors, albeit a bit sheepishly, admit: finally, they can breathe easily, no longer fearing the next problems that this person brought into their lives.