Firefighters in Daugavpils received an atypical call for rescue work. Upon arriving at the scene, there was nothing left for them to extinguish—the flames had gone out by themselves, but in the center of the destroyed apartment, the owner was found without signs of life.
Tragic events occurred over the weekend in one of the apartments with windows facing the street, reports the Degpunktā program (TV3). Neighbors visited the elderly woman living there daily, but the visit on Sunday morning ended with a call to emergency services.
"At the scene, it was established that due to a lack of oxygen, the flames had already gone out. The area of the fire was 60 square meters. Oxygen is necessary for combustion. It is possible that all the windows and doors in the house were closed, so as the fire developed, the oxygen burned out, and the flames disappeared," said Dainis Slavinskis, commander of the 1st unit of the Daugavpils Latgale Regional Fire and Rescue Service.
Most likely, the fire started the previous evening, but everything happened quietly and unnoticed.
In daylight, the only signs that there might have been a fire here are slightly sooty windows and melted snow on the roof, which likely occurred due to high temperatures.
None of the nearby residents even suspected that one of the long-time residents of the building had died nearby.
"We just found her yesterday morning; she simply suffocated. She was sitting and praying. Look, here is the room. This is her bedroom, and further was her room, where she prayed. And here (in the bedroom), everything burned down. Two rooms and the kitchen were scorched. And she suffocated without air. I was in such shock yesterday at nine in the morning that I nearly had a heart attack. She was sitting there; her prayer book was there; she is Catholic. She remained in her chair," said a neighbor.
The neighbor planned to take the deceased to church, as they had developed such a tradition over the years. The woman believes that faith in higher powers protected the neighbors, as the consequences could have been much more serious.
"Thank God, perhaps she prayed for us, because the firefighters said we were very lucky," the woman adds.
According to the neighbor, the deceased was 71 years old. There are no signs of a crime; most likely, the fire started from the stove, and as things smoldered, the rooms filled with acrid smoke, which left no chance for escape.
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