The cause of a third of fires on New Year's holidays in Kazan is careless handling of fire.

(KZN.RU, December 17, Alena Miroshnichenko). Almost a third of the fires on New Year's holidays in Kazan happens due to the careless handling of fire. Ferdinant Timurkhanov, the head of the Department for Civil Protection, announced this today at the Business Monday.

He cited statistics on the number of fires last year. In the period from December 1, 2017, to January 31, 2018, 155 fires occurred in Kazan, 6 people were killed and 18 were injured. “As a rule, the situation with fires is exacerbated during the festive New Year period. Often, fires are accompanied by group deaths. So, the fire that occurred in 2017 in the house №56 on Nazarbaev Street, took the lives of three people, including a child. On December 4 of this year, two men were killed in the abandoned building of the Kirovsky district for the same reason. On December 16, during a fire at №15 on Mir Street in the Sovetsky district, three people died, including a child, many people were injured, all of them were hospitalized”, F. Timurkhanov told about the recent cases.

In total for 2018, 614 fires occurred, in which 33 people died, 53 were injured, and 68 people were rescued.

One of the causes of fires during the New Year holidays is the use of various pyrotechnic products. “In the past New Year's holidays, 8 people received serious burns when 8 products were misused on the territory of Kazan”, said F. Timurkhanov. He added that it was forbidden to use pyrotechnics in confined spaces: rooms, apartments, offices. You also can not use salutes, fireworks, and rockets without observing the minimum distance to buildings, vehicles, and people. Hot parts can get on flammable objects. F. Timurkhanov advises everyone to get acquainted with the detailed information on the use and order of application of pyrotechnic means.

As the main rescuer of the city noted, the situation is complicated by the large influx of non-certified products, which represent a real threat to the life and health of people, especially when pyrotechnics falls into the hands of children. He also added that the implementation and storage of pyrotechnic products often do not comply with fire safety requirements. Thus, an unintentional explosion of one firecracker can lead to the detonation of all pyrotechnic products, which ultimately can lead to a fire, warned the speaker.

Ferdinant Timurkhanov said that from December 20 to January 9, a special fire-prevention regime will operate on the territory of Kazan. The launch of a salute or firework on New Year's holidays is allowed at four special venues.

F. Timurkhanov appealed to the heads of departments of the Executive Committee with a request to take control of compliance with fire safety regulations, organize an inspection of the venues for New Year and Christmas events, work with enterprises selling pyrotechnic products, comply with fire safety measures at trade points, conduct preventive conversations with the public.

The speaker also advised to prohibit decorating gas stations and other high-risk objects with uncertified electric garlands and to take measures to clear snow and ice from passages to holiday venues, to sources of a road and fire-fighting water supply.

Currently, the Department of Civil Protection is conducting evacuation trainings in case of fires in schools, kindergartens, and other facilities. “We are confident that timely preventive measures aimed at ensuring fire safety will allow our city to reduce the number of accidents involving fires, especially on New Year's holidays”, he said.

Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, reminded his colleagues that according to the law, the responsibility for security lies with the heads of the institutions where the events are held. “The recommendations are obligatory for execution by the heads of all structural divisions and institutions. Particular attention should be paid to sites for mass events. The statistics indicates that a third of all fires occur during the New Year holidays. So, we once again need to pay special attention to prevention and outreach work with children and adults”, summarized the Mayor.