Firefighters rescue 24 people from apartment building fire in Daugavpils

Latvia's State Fire and Rescue Service (VUGD) received 37 calls across the country between 6:30 a.m. on 12 November and 6:30 a.m. on 13 November. Ten were for fires, 18 for rescue operations, and nine turned out to be false alarms. The most significant incident occurred in Daugavpils, where firefighters rescued 24 people from a five-storey residential building.

Daugavpils

The call to Puškina Street in Daugavpils came in at 5:02 p.m. On arrival, rescuers found heavy smoke in the stairwell, while a computer and household items were burning over 5 square metres in a first-floor apartment. Using breathing masks, firefighters led 24 people out of the building, and four more evacuated on their own before the service arrived. Six pets were also saved. Work at the scene ended at 6:48 p.m.

Jelgava and elsewhere

In Jelgava, on Smilšu Street, an auxiliary room of 15 square metres caught fire on the ground floor of a two-storey residential building at 7:30 p.m. An injured person evacuated before VUGD arrived and was handed over to emergency medical service paramedics. Work at the scene lasted about an hour.

In the Beļava parish of Gulbene municipality, a single-storey house of 100 square metres was on fire from 2:38 p.m. One person left the building before rescuers arrived, and the fire was extinguished at 6:06 p.m.

In Riga, on Dzelzavas Street, food left unattended on a switched-on stove and kitchen furniture burned over 2 square metres in a first-floor kitchen of a nine-storey building at 4:39 a.m. Three people evacuated from the apartment. No smoke detector was installed in the home.

VUGD reminder

The service reminds residents that every home must have a smoke detector that warns of smoke with a loud signal. Tragic fires most often start at night, when people are asleep and cannot smell smoke, so the detector's alarm can wake them in time and give them a chance to escape.

Over the 24 hours, firefighters also extinguished fires involving a bus, soot in a residential chimney, an apartment floor, a power line pole, an electrical socket in an apartment and rubbish.