Residents’ careless behavior leads to fatal disasters – they lose their homes in 15 minutes

“The issue of safe behavior becomes especially important each year as the heating season approaches, when the number of fires in residential buildings increases significantly. Therefore, residents must begin to take care of the safety of their homes during the heating season: clean the chimneys of stoves and fireplaces, repair stoves, check that the electrical installation, which does not yet have smoke detectors, is in order, install them. They will not protect against fires, but in the event of an accident, they will help to react more fast and save your property, and maybe even your life, ”says Vasarė Širmelytė, an insurance specialist with insurance company BTA Turto.

According to the expert, compensation for fire damage is usually in the thousands. Fire is a disaster that often causes the most damage, as property that is not damaged by fire melts with water when it is extinguished. This year, the average damage caused by a fire is almost 6 thousand. EUR last year was even higher, almost 9 thousand. euros.

Half of the fires are due to improper use of ovens.

According to the insurance expert, fires are usually caused by messy ovens, messy electrical installations, or unquenched smoke, but there are also cases where the fire occurs during cooking or when Christmas garlands of decorative light bulbs catch fire. “People often think that a fire needs an extremely large flame source. However, it can also come from a spark that has fallen from the oven, a lit candle, or a dish towel that has been left too close to an open fire. Furthermore, the fire spreads extremely fast, in 10-15 minutes. It may have already covered the whole house or apartment, “says V. Širmelytė.

According to data from the Fire Protection and Rescue Department (PAGD), the main causes of fires in apartment buildings this year are careless fire handling (17.1%), failures of electrical equipment, appliances, installation (16, 3%), sloppy smoking (15.5%). violations and failures of the requirements for the installation and operation of furnaces, chimneys and chimneys (15.3%).

The causes of fires in individual homes are distributed differently. Here, more than half of all fires are caused by violations and failures of the requirements for the installation and operation of stoves, fireplaces and chimneys, up 54.3 percent. In second place are failures of electrical equipment, devices, electrical installation (13.7%), in third place – careless handling of people due to fire (5.4%).

“Improperly installed or used stoves and fireplaces cause many fires, most often caused by soot, overheating, falling embers, or burning wood in a dirty fireplace or fireplace. It is dangerous to keep multiple objects or wood within a meter of the stove, as they can heat up and catch fire. It is also important to keep the door of the stove or fireplace closed, not put too long on the stove and not leave a stove or fireplace burning when leaving home “, advises V. Širmelytė .

The expert also asks that attention be paid to the loading of scooters and wheels at home. It is observed that the latter also become the cause of the fire. “Fires caused by improper loading of rollers and scooters are not common, but have occurred in recent years. Riders of scooters and skateboards should read and follow the loading rules for these devices more carefully. prolonged battery life, for example leaving the device overnight, can damage the battery, overheat it and cause a fire, ”warns V. Širmelytė.

Careless smoking is the most common cause of a fatal fire

In eight months of this year, fires increased 27.8 percent compared to the same period last year. fewer: 6,647 fires, compared to 9,218 fires last year, according to PAGD statistics. And here, in the 8 months of this year, 57 people died in human fires, up from 51 in the same period last year.

More people died in fires due to careless smoking – 26 people, compared to 20 people who died in the same period last year.

According to V. Širmelytė, sloppy smoking is also reflected in the statistics of insurers. “It is one of the most common causes of fires, as we can see from the data of firefighters, which often end in death. Usually people smoke while lying in bed and fall asleep without putting out the tobacco, and there are cases in which a well-extinguished tobacco is thrown away.

“The consequences of such frivolous behavior have been warned for many years, but people still do not realize that a cigarette can kill not only figuratively, but also literally, and one spark is enough to start a deadly fire” says the expert.