Four months – three explosions: these are the statistics after this weekend’s disasters in Panevėžys apartment buildings. On Sunday, the waves of the explosion in the Ramygala Street apartment building were strong enough to dislodge a window. The landlord was also badly affected.
The explosion occurred in the 67th dormitory apartment building on Ramygala street on Sunday around one in the morning.
When the firefighters arrived, there was smoke in the kitchen of one of the apartments on the eighth floor, plastic signs, rags, and plastic containers were on fire.
A couple of buckets of water was enough for the officers to extinguish the fire. Especially since before the arrival of the services, the owner of the windowless apartment also tried to suppress the fire. He was taken to the hospital with severe burns on his hands and face.
Vilma Vaiginytė, chief specialist of the Panevėžys Fire Rescue Board’s State Fire Protection Department, says that although there was almost no fire at the scene, the man suffered from hot steam.
The specialist confirmed: the explosion was definitely not related to gas – there was no leakage.
It was also lucky that none of the neighboring apartments were damaged.
P. Židonis photo.
He suspects a copper housewife
Odeta Jukniūtė, head of the Communication Sub-Department of Panevėžys County Chief Police Commissariat, confirmed to “Sekunde” that according to preliminary data, the possible cause of the explosion could have been a domestic cooking appliance. However, information is still being collected, and a decision on the initiation of a pre-trial investigation has not yet been made on Monday.
According to O. Jukniūtė, it is still too early to talk about a possible punishment for the landlord.
Although only his apartment was damaged, the window frames and glass that fell from a great height damaged the cars parked below. This damage, according to the police, is not very serious.
However, if it is confirmed that the resident of the nine-story building drove the house, he would have to answer for it.
According to O. Jukniūtė, in such a case, a pre-trial investigation might be started in accordance with Article 201, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code. Illegal production, storage, transportation of home-made strong alcoholic beverages and devices for their production with the purpose of sale or sale may result in serious punishment – community service or a fine, in other cases – restriction of liberty or arrest. Imprisonment of up to two years is also possible.
Usually, according to the police representative, homemade breweries are hidden in rural areas or set up in forests.
“It’s the first time in the city – at least I haven’t heard of such a case and I don’t know about it”, – O. Jukniūtė says that if the information is confirmed, it would most likely be the first such case.
Went to look around
On Monday, Panevėžys City Municipality building maintenance specialists also inspected the apartment destroyed by the explosion.
Dalius Vadluga, head of the City Infrastructure Department of the municipality, said that it was more of a hedge – if the building was in any danger, the firefighters would have already informed about it.
“We will draw up an inspection report and we will see what we find,” D. Vadluga told “Sekunde” before leaving for the scene.
As expected, the visual inspection did not reveal any damages – neither the walls nor the ceilings of the house. No cracks were observed.
Darius Linkonas, head of the Municipality’s Construction Department, confirmed that only the apartment where the explosion took place was affected: apart from the blown-out window, the interior decoration was damaged in places. The furniture, even in the kitchen where the explosion is suspected, remained intact. The cracked partition between the kitchen and the living room is a light internal structure, so its condition does not pose a danger to the house.
Although the owner’s apartment and himself were mostly damaged by Sunday’s explosion, if the circumstances of the incident are clarified, it may be necessary to compensate the neighbors as well. PA VPK, photo.
People were evacuated
Three months ago, on January 21, an explosion also occurred in the former dormitory on Nemunas street.
When a 5-liter gas cylinder exploded in an apartment on the fifth floor, the wave destroyed two adjacent apartments, overturned the outer wall with windows, as well as the wall separating the apartments from the common corridor.
The explosion was so strong that even the windows of the apartment on the first floor of the apartment in front of it were broken, and the windows of another apartment on the second floor were cracked.
Firefighters had to evacuate residents of seven apartments.
The owner of the apartment was also able to put out the fire before the firemen arrived. He was also taken to the hospital due to his burns.
However, the damage caused to the building was incomparable – it was even necessary to declare an emergency.
Experts later assessed that the supporting structures of the building were not damaged, no signs of an emergency condition were recorded and it is not dangerous to live in this house. The partition destroyed during the explosion had no supporting structure – a simple repair would be enough to restore it.
By the way, the Chief Police Commissariat of Panevėžys County is still conducting a pre-trial investigation regarding this incident.
Another explosion in Panevėžys occurred on the first day of Christmas. Almost at half past five in the evening, a report was received that he broke the window of the apartment at 9 Smėlynė street. The owner of the apartment in this nine-story building was not injured that time. Larger losses were also avoided.
P. Židonis photo.
To inform is not to complain
For the past few months, it seems that explosions in apartment buildings in Lithuania have been thundering one after another.
The most painful disaster was the explosion in Vilnius, Viršuliškės at the beginning of this year. After that and the fire that took two lives, the five-story building was declared uninhabitable.
The president of the Lithuanian Housing Chamber, Algis Čaplikas, says that the reasons for each such case are different. Sometimes these are operational and maintenance issues, sometimes accidents are caused by other things.
However, in his opinion, the problem with apartment buildings is administration and maintenance.
According to A. Čaplik, the attitude of state politicians that by increasing fines and punishing the presidents of associations, the administrator will change, is ineffective: the problems will still remain.
And quite a few of them have accumulated in this area.
A. Čaplikas says that he welcomes the move of the Ministry of Environment to finally establish a housing maintenance unit, but suggests not to stop there.
In theory, it is possible to avoid the disaster, says the interviewer, but it requires promptness. After receiving the signal, the relevant services should act very quickly to protect people’s health and life.
“Don’t go through those legal procedures, which sometimes just make it difficult,” says the president of the Housing Chamber, giving as an example the problem of hoarders, when garbage brought in an apartment building starts to pose both a sanitary and a fire threat.
“Something can be done here only with joint efforts. The first step is to identify the problem and talk about it out loud. Politicians need to start doing this and clearly empower who is solving the problem in one case or another. What is the municipality doing, what is the community doing, the administrator, what is the police doing, what are the firefighters doing,” A. Čaplikas says.
According to him, the owner of the property is the resident and the resident is responsible for it. If we are talking about the behavior of the neighbors, according to A. Čaplik, without the notification of the residents, the information provided will be of no use. And he doesn’t call that a complaint.
“We must not be afraid to speak clearly about it, to inform boldly. I understand, it is humanly unpleasant, but on the other hand, only the owner is responsible for the quality of the property”, the specialist repeats once again that informing about inappropriate or suspicious behavior of a neighbor sometimes saves lives.
Not everything has been resolved with regard to the consequences of such disasters, emphasizes A. Čaplikas. Let’s say there is currently no common room liability.
“Residents can only insure their property, which is inside their apartment, and the outside is not insured,” he says, adding that in the event of an accident, the staircase and other common areas need to be rebuilt for something.
