Bystanders and neighbours rescued three children from a fire in Baranavichy. According to the Emergency Situations Ministry, the fire broke out yesterday evening on Aliaksandr Valoshyn Street. A balcony caught fire on the sixth floor of an eleven-storey residential building.
The apartment contained two children born in 2020 and one child born in 2018. The parents had gone to a shop with another child at the time.
“Neighbours from the eighth floor heard the sound of an autonomous fire detector. After going down to the sixth floor, they heard children crying, but the entrance door was locked. Nobody answered their knocking. The neighbours called the Emergency Situations Ministry and began trying to force the door open themselves. At that moment, a male bystander noticed thick smoke coming from the balcony from a building opposite and immediately rushed to help in the neighbouring entrance.
Another man driving by made the same decision. They simultaneously went up to the sixth floor and, together with the neighbours, forced open the entrance door and entered the heavily smoke-filled apartment. The bystanders quickly found the three frightened children, carried them into fresh air and handed them over to the ambulance team.”, the ministry said.
Rescuers arriving at the scene extinguished the fire. The three children were hospitalised with smoke inhalation.
According to the preliminary version, the cause of the fire was children playing with fire.