Kiteboarder rescued at sea as three, including a firefighter, injured in fires
On Wednesday a kiteboarder was rescued off the coast in Lapmežciems after being carried out to sea, while three people, including a firefighter, were injured in separate fires across Latvia.
Latvia's State Fire and Rescue Service (VUGD) reported that shortly after 9pm on Wednesday, a kiteboarder got into trouble roughly 30 metres from shore in the Lapmežciems parish of Tukums municipality. A technical malfunction left him unable to reach land on his own, and he called for help. Bystanders on the beach spotted him and rescued him with a jet ski before firefighters arrived on scene.
Three injured in fires, including a firefighter
Over the same 24-hour period, three people were injured in fires across the country, one of them a firefighter. At around 3.31pm, a fire broke out in a single-storey wooden building in the Saulkrasti parish of Saulkrasti municipality, damaging the first floor and roof structure across about 180 square metres. Two people were injured, including a firefighter who, after being checked by medics on site, resumed work. The fire was extinguished shortly before 8pm.
Overnight, at 3.18am Thursday, crews were called to Lielvārdes Street in Riga after unattended food caught fire in a flat on the second floor of a five-storey residential building. Using a rescue mask, firefighters pulled an injured person from the flat.
Later, at 8.39pm, another crew responded to a fire on Bolderājas Street in Riga, where two sheds and a residential building's wall burned across a combined 130 square metres; two people were evacuated from the house. Separately, at 2.13am, equipment caught fire across 40 square metres in a single-storey production building in the Cieceres parish of Saldus municipality; six people had already evacuated before firefighters arrived.
In total, VUGD received 48 calls over the 24-hour period — 13 for fires, 26 for rescue operations, and nine false alarms.
