In Preili, fire trucks at one of the private houses became the only sign for local residents that a fire had started in the building. They had no idea that the 90-year-old owner inside needed help to leave the smoky premises.
The metal gates at the private house on Ziedu Street, where the fire occurred, remained open, reports the Degpunktā program (TV3). The destruction was not visible from the outside, as the fire raged inside. Neighbors realized something was wrong when fire trucks blocked the narrow street.
"There was no smoke, nothing. There was some smell, but… (DP: Were the firefighters here for a long time?) Maybe an hour, they were doing something there for about 40 minutes. (…) I was scared that there might be something big that would spread to me, but no. (…) There seems to be an elderly woman living there — she is about 90," said a neighbor.
The residents of the area do not have close relations with the woman, so upon noticing the rescuers' work, they did not inquire about what had happened.
It is believed that the fire could have started due to ashes being poured into a bucket. The woman herself tried to escape from the house, but she did not have enough strength and had to wait for the rescuers' help.
"In the corridor of the single-story residential building, the floor was burning over an area of two square meters. A person was rescued from the fire, who was injured and handed over to the emergency medical service. A smoke detector was not installed in the house," said GPSS representative Sandra Veinīņa.
The exact circumstances of the incident will be investigated by the State Police.
