Akim of Kostanay region Kumar Aksakalov announced the cause of the fire in Zhitikara, which took the lives of five children. He recalled that the children were home alone at the time of the tragedy. He is quoted by "Informburo".
"The children were alone at home at night, unattended. The eldest child, who survived, woke up at four in the morning. He was apparently trying to light the stove. And he put something in with the firewood. He himself said that he put some kind of bottle in there. That caused the explosion. He ran out into the street. By the time we got there, all of this had happened," Aksakalov said at a briefing at the Central Communications Service.
The head of the region met with the mother and grandmother of the deceased children. A few days after the tragedy, the family was bought a two-room apartment with furniture and appliances.
What else is known
Akim Aksakalov also assured that before the heating season, the Department of Emergency Situations employees go around all the houses where mothers with many children and other socially vulnerable categories of the population live. Rescuers check the condition of chimneys and stoves.
"Sensors and carbon monoxide detectors are being installed. They have already helped many. The sensor was installed in this house, but for some reason it was turned off. But this is a question for the residents themselves. It is necessary to check periodically, it is not expensive to simply replace the battery," Aksakalov said.
Early in the morning of October 11, five children aged between one and eight died in a fire in a private home in the Kostanay region. Firefighters arrived at the scene within seven minutes, but the house was already completely engulfed in flames and the roof had collapsed. The children's bodies were found after clearing the rubble. The eldest child, born in 2011, was not injured.
The preliminary cause of the fire was said to be leaving the stove unattended. The Minister of Labor and Social Protection said that the stove was lit by a friend of the mother at her request.
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