At an online briefing Minister of Emergency Situations Yuri Ilyin spoke about the heating season and measures taken to ensure fire safety.
As noted by Ilyin, according to Kazhydromet, the expected winter period will be comparable with the previous year, that is, there will be a lot of precipitation, a relatively warm winter period, which will possibly provoke complications of weather conditions in the near future (January-February) by the formation of a blowing snowstorm, snowstorms and according to possible traffic congestion.
In general, the winter period of 2020-2021 has already been marked by a number of major emergencies. Most of those emergencies that are registered in the Republic of Kazakhstan are fires with group cases of injury and death of people.
"Compared to the same period last year, we observe an insignificant increase in the number of deaths and injuries during the fire," Ilyin said.
The main reasons are the improper operation of gas cylinder and furnace equipment, mainly in the residential sector.
According to the minister, the preparatory period for the heating season has begun well in advance. Since August, more than 118 thousand private sector households have been registered, where socially vulnerable groups of the population live, including pensioners, disabled people, large families. Raids were carried out in this sector on several occasions. Some residents, after handing over the memos and instructions, took independent measures to eliminate the identified deficiencies. Work is actively carried out with local executive bodies to install sensors for various purposes: from carbon monoxide, natural gas, smoke. The total number, taking into account last year, is more than 120 thousand sensors. Installing sensors has a positive effect.
"In many regions, the triggering of these sensors led to the fact that residents living in these households were notified in a timely manner, which, accordingly, did not lead to tragic consequences," Ilyin said.
Months on fire safety in the residential sector will continue throughout the winter period.
"I would like the citizens to pay attention to the remarks and recommendations issued by the employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, to bring their homes into proper condition so that there are no tragic consequences," the minister said.
Also, a massive tour of the entire residential sector is carried out to present recommendations and reminders of the rules of conduct in the winter. In total, more than 1.2 million homes have already been raided with instructions from more than 2 million citizens living in the private sector.
Safety measures during operation of gas equipment in Nur-Sultan
On Nov. 21, an emergency occurred in a cafe. The explosion resulted in a large number of victims, two people died. As noted by Yu. Ilyin, in one cafe alone, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kazakhstan removed 35 cylinders for cooking. This is a violation committed by the owners of the actors themselves, and leads to such tragic consequences. To date, a meeting of the Government was held, where recommendations were given to local executive bodies to organize raid events on places of cooking and coverage of the population living in the residential sector for explanatory work.
"No matter how we tell our citizens, a similar incident happened literally a week later in Taldykorgan, when the owner of the house brought a 5-liter gas cylinder into a warm room from frost, resulting in an explosion. The hostess of the house and her son were killed and the guests suffered. The house fell into disrepair. Our citizens need to pay attention to safety measures during the operation of gas equipment," the minister said.
Local executive bodies will carry out raids on all these objects. But, as Ilyin emphasized, first of all it is the sacred duty of our citizens to take care of the state of their homes and the state of health of their relatives and friends.
To avoid such tragic cases, citizens need to follow simple rules:
First, to carry out timely cleaning of chimneys at least once every three months.
Second, the obligatory device of a flush plate made of a metal product measuring at least 50 by 70 cm.
Third, do not use flammable liquids and do not cover heating devices.
Fourth, do not allow storage of gas cylinders near stoves and open flames. Before going to bed and when leaving home, check the valves of the gas equipment.
Fifth, do not leave children unattended by adults.
During the briefing, journalists asked the minister a question about whether the Ministry of Emergencies could impose a phased ban on the operation of gas cylinders at catering points and railway trains.
In his reply, Ilyin noted that the EMERCOM divisions control and carry out inspections only at facilities with an increased risk of danger. These are industrial enterprises, objects with a mass presence of people. Cafe and restaurant business are not under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Emergencies of the Republic of Kazakhstan. There is a corresponding government decree that obliges local executive bodies to create gas technical inspectorates, which must monitor the situation in cafes and restaurants for the operation of gas equipment.
"I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that these are also our citizens who are engaged in business. Probably, there should be responsibility not only of the state for the correct operation of gas equipment, but above all, responsibility of both citizens and businessmen for the safety of those people who come to their cafes," said the minister of emergency situations.
Simple safety rules on water bodies
Despite the ongoing preventive work on the water bodies of the republic, from Nov. 21, 2020, rescuers have been conducting diving search operations on Lake Zaysan of the East Kazakhstan region to find the missing two fishermen.
On Dec. 8, 2020, in the Kyzylorda region on Lake Kambash, a UAZ car (tablet) with 7 citizens fell under the ice during fishing, as a result four drowned.
The subdivisions of the ministry are carrying out a complex of preventive measures in the water bodies of the country.
In this regard, I remind the citizens of the simple safety rules on water bodies:
do not go out on thin and fragile areas of ice,
as well as at night and in poor visibility;
do not come close to gullies, cracks, ice holes;
do not leave children unattended by adults and prohibit children from playing on ice.
Drivers should not ignore storm warnings
The winter period is characterized by snow drifts, ice, avalanches.
Ilyin asked vehicle drivers not to neglect storm warnings about changing weather conditions.
From October to today, 14 cases of traffic congestion were registered due to weather conditions (ice and snow drifts).
Motor transport must be technically appropriate for the season. Do not allow cars to warm up with blowtorches, and also have funds (shovel, crowbar) in case of traffic jams.
It is important not to forget about safety on holidays
Holidays and weekends are ahead, of course, these days the number of emergencies is increasing.
Ilyin recalled the safe use of pyrotechnic products. It is forbidden to use them:
in rooms and buildings, namely on roofs, balconies and loggias;
in the territories of explosive and fire hazardous facilities, near power lines;
on stage sites during concerts and celebrations;
it is not allowed to use products with an expired shelf life, traces of deterioration, without instructions for use and a certificate of conformity.
"In general, emergency departments are ready to respond in the winter. I hope that our citizens will spend the festive events that await us from tomorrow and the New Year holidays with their families and with as few emergencies as possible," the minister said at the end of his speech.
How will residents be notified of an emergency?
Answering journalists' questions, Ilyin spoke about the existing methods of notifying residents in the event of an emergency in the country.
According to him, Kazakhstan has a state emergency warning system. It implies the use of all types of communication and warning means that exist in the country. First of all, the launch of electric sirens, which are located in every regional and district centers. There are regions in which there is already 100% coverage of the territory, there are regions that are working on this. I think that in the next 3 years we will fully equip the territory of Kazakhstan for notification with speech devices.
The second is the use of radio and television interception in order to alert the population on all available television and radio channels and by sending SMS messages.
In addition, there is the Darmen application, which allows you to receive timely information on all types of emergencies. To date, more than 200 thousand people are registered in the application.
If an emergency occurs, divisions of both the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Internal Affairs work in the emergency zone. Loudspeaker devices are connected, which are located on mobile vehicles and notify the population about this or that emergency.
What measures are taken against homeowners who improperly use stove heating?
To prevent the occurrence of fires in the private sector, only raid measures are currently being carried out. The population is told about the risks and pointed out to the people about the shortcomings of the stove equipment.
"We cannot take any administrative measures in accordance with the fact that the Constitution implies the inviolability of the homes of our citizens. But the recommendations that we issue to citizens, they eliminate the shortcomings, this allows them to live in a safe environment. Today we have installed more than 120 thousand sensors at the expense of akimats. This is not a panacea, but in the future we plan to replace electrical equipment at the expense of local budgets at least for the poor and pensioners in some households. Because now there are a lot of fires, when a malfunction of the electrical wiring leads to tragic consequences," noted Ilyin.
Number of fires increased in Kazakhstan
The Ministry of Emergency Situations states a slight increase in the number of fires in Kazakhstan compared to last year. Moreover, they mainly occur in the private sector.
"Compared to last year, we have a slight increase in the number of fires. There is a 2% increase in the number of deaths and a decrease in the number of victims of carbon monoxide. In the past week alone, we have had 293 fires. They killed 19 people, and 47 people who received assistance during hospitalization," said Ilyin.
According to statistics, more than 15 thousand fires occur in Kazakhstan every year, of which about 65-67% are recorded in the private residential sector.
On rescue operation for the missing man
At the briefing, the Head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Yuri Ilyin told about the rescue operation of the disappeared 35-year-old Yerman Baimenov — rescuers found the man in serious condition with severe frostbite of his legs.
Yuri Ilyin expressed his condolences to the relatives of the deceased Kazakhstani.
"I would like to comment on the information in the media and the posts of bloggers with negative information that he was seen and not rescued — the group of the republican operational rescue squad and the rescue service of the Almaty Akimat did not stop search work either day or night. The fact that the person was found by geolocation for the last time — then he was found almost a kilometer from the location of the cell phone geolocation. Information that there were sounds, shouts, he heard or heard our rescuers - there are no confirming facts," said the head of the Ministry of Emergencies.
He reported that Baymenov was found in serious condition, he had frostbite of the lower extremities with a threadlike pulse.
"The man was quickly transported to the medical facility as soon as possible, night had already fallen. Why was aircraft not used? During 2 days of search work, we repeatedly tried to lift the helicopters — according to the meteorological conditions provided by Kazhydromet, and we obey the rules of aviation safety, KazAeroNavigation did not give permission for the KazAviaSpas unit to take off from Almaty airport to carry out rescue operations. The sky was partially clear of clouds in the search area, but the helicopters take off with the permission of the Civil Aviation Committee from Almaty — in Almaty at that time there was low cloudiness, icing and fog," Yuri Ilyin also said.
He said that Baimenov was found at about 3 p.m. Rescuers put him in a special stretcher for heating and provided him with warm clothes — the man was lifted in his arms to the pass for more than 1 km, for another 3 km he was carried in bad weather conditions over a difficult terrain.
"Unfortunately, when the rescuers had already gone to the place of duty of the brigade of the disaster medicine center, the doctors pronounced death," Ilyin explained.
He asked those who like to rest in the mountains to build their route in advance and be sure to register it with the emergency departments so that the rescuers know who goes to the mountains and which route.