Two Drown and One Dies in Fire on Līgo Day

On Līgo day (June 23), two people drowned in Latvia and another died in a fire, the State Fire and Rescue Service (VUGD) informed LETA.

At 3:30 PM, rescuers were called to Penkule Parish in Dobele Municipality, where a person had gone swimming and disappeared. After searching the water body, they found the person dead. Shortly before midnight, a call came from Grundzāle Parish in Smiltene Municipality, where a person was drowning in a pond. The person was pulled out before VUGD arrived, but life could not be saved.

During the night of Jāņi, around 2 AM, a fire broke out in a first-floor apartment of a three-story residential building in Rēzekne, covering 20 square meters. One person died in the fire. Firefighters using rescue masks saved three people, one injured was handed over to medics, and two evacuated before VUGD arrived.

At 1:30 PM in Rīga, on Plēksnes Street, a burnt meal on a stove in a first-floor apartment of a five-story building caused heavy smoke. Firefighters rescued a person and a dog from the smoky apartment; the person was injured and handed over to the Emergency Medical Service.

In total, VUGD received 96 calls in the past 24 hours, including 29 for firefighting and 18 for rescue operations, while 49 calls were false alarms. Firefighters also extinguished various fires: a shed, transformer, floor slab in a residential building, unoccupied house, dry grass, brush pile, reeds, bushes, two garden houses, a car, a table, and multiple garbage fires.