The fire safety status of the housing stock in the Vitebsk region will be inspected in the first half of the year

February 19, Vitebsk / Sergei Kochetov - BELTA /. By the end of the first half of the year, the Vitebsk region plans to inspect the fire safety of the entire housing stock. This was announced by the first deputy head of the regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shevyako, today at a meeting of the regional commission for emergency situations, a BELTA correspondent reports. A significant increase in fire fatalities in the region since the beginning of the year requires the adoption of large-scale preventive measures. In less than two months, fires have claimed the lives of 73 people, which is almost double the number of deaths in the same period last year. Due to people leading an antisocial lifestyle and abusing alcohol, there were 126 fires with fatalities, or 74% of the total number of fires that claimed lives. At the same time, measures to ensure fire safety in settlements and citizens' households are not being fully implemented. For example, analysis shows that inspection commissions in the districts practically do not check the fire safety of residential buildings. This applies to Braslavsky, Miorsky, Tolochinsky and several other districts. In the households of single elderly citizens, slightly more than 8.3 thousand autonomous fire alarms (APIs) have been installed, which is only 36% of the required number. In several districts, the work on connecting APIs into a single network in the homes and apartments of hearing-impaired, infirm citizens, disabled people, as well as large families and families raising young children, is organized unsatisfactorily. In addition, 53 settlements lack fire water supply, and 60 facilities with mass or round-the-clock occupancy are not equipped with an automatic fire alarm system. The regional commission for emergency situations has developed a set of practical and preventive measures to ensure fire and industrial safety, including, among other things, holding a fire safety month, as well as tightening the responsibility of managers who allow systematic violations, up to considering the issue of their suitability for their positions. Since the beginning of the year, 281 fires have occurred in the region, with total material damage exceeding Br1.3 billion. Half of them were caused by careless handling of fire. -0-