Four people died in two fires in the Vitebsk region over the past day

February 23, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. Four people died in two fires in the Vitebsk region over the past day, as reported to a BELTA correspondent by Marina Fando, press secretary of the regional emergency management department. In the Beshenkovichi district, a married couple, both unemployed, died in a fire in a private house. The tragedy occurred in the evening in the village of Verkhovye. Due to a late report, rescuers arrived at the scene of the fire when the house was engulfed in flames and the ceiling had partially collapsed. After extinguishing the fire, the bodies of the homeowner, born in 1967, and his wife, born in 1959, were found under the building structures. The presumed cause of the fire is carelessness while smoking by the deceased while intoxicated. The family was registered with the rural council as dysfunctional. Four hours later, a similar tragedy occurred in Vitebsk. In a private house owned by two people, one of the homeowners, an unemployed man born in 1955, and another person, presumably a man whose identity is being established, died. The possible cause of the fire is considered to be a violation of the rules for the installation and construction of electrical networks and equipment, as homemade heating devices were found at the scene. In total, since the beginning of the year, 254 fires have occurred in the Vitebsk region. 61 people have died in fires, 57 of whom were intoxicated. The most common cause of fires is careless handling of fire while smoking. Thus, in 2010, this reason accounted for three-quarters of fires, and almost 90% of those who died (217 out of 241 people who died in 2010) were drunk at the time of the fire. In 2010, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, together with police officers, inspected 7.1 thousand households of dysfunctional citizens and instructed over 11.3 thousand people on fire safety measures. Over 1.1 thousand residents of the region diagnosed with "chronic alcoholism" were sent for compulsory treatment to specialized medical and labor dispensaries. -0-