Dragana called for help in the flames, firefighters rescued the tenants, glass and debris scattered everywhere

Injured wife Dragana Ž. (43) in the explosion that occurred on Saturday afternoon in his apartment, he is recovering, and the other tenants who were in the hospital were discharged.

At around 6 pm, a horrible explosion occurred in an apartment in a three-story building at 3 M. Obrenovića street in Užice, in which Dragan was seriously injured. Ž. (43) and was immediately transferred to Belgrade for further treatment, while four other tenants were transferred to the hospital in Užice for swallowing smoke.

All the tenants in this and the other two buildings in a row claim that the cause of the accident was gas. They say that even though the buildings were not gasified, the gas came from the sewers of their apartments. They bear witness to the horrible explosion and the blue flame that erupted.

That night horrible scenes were seen: a woman on fire from the terrace calling for help, firefighters rescuing women with ladders, glass and debris scattered everywhere …

– Dragana was standing on the burning terrace, as fire and smoke spread in all directions. Firefighters arrived quickly and put out the fire. They carried two women down the ladder and carried Dragan out on a stretcher. Other tenants ran out of the building. It was horrible to see – says the building’s tenant, whose mother-in-law was alone in the apartment across the street at the time of the explosion, and that due to the force of the detonation all the doors of the cupboards, sinks and refrigerator were opened.

He added that after everything calmed down, people arrived with devices from the Institute of Public Health.

– In each apartment, they measured the gas concentration in the bathrooms above the grills. It showed everywhere that there was gas, which it shouldn’t be, he added.

The injured son Borko says he is on the mend.

– He suffered third degree burns to his arms, burns to his legs and to some part of his body. Before the explosion, she first walked the dog and then went shopping at the store. When he returned, an explosion may not have lasted a minute. And before that, maybe a month and a half ago, in the apartment, in the building, you could feel the gas a lot. She’s not a smoker, so maybe when she turned on the light, that spark set off an explosion. A fire engulfed her and she ran to the terrace. At first they thought the boiler had exploded, but the boiler remained intact. We didn’t have gas cylinders in the apartment – says Borko, who was outside with the company at the time, adding that the dog managed to escape.

Borko is now staying in a house in a nearby town and the next day he came with another to find some things and clothes that were left intact.

There are creepy scenes in the hallway of the building. Shots and glass everywhere, broken doors, fallen facade. The tenant above the apartment where the explosion occurred was in his apartment at the time.

– Everything shook, I felt like the plane had crashed. I smelled the smoke, it burned my eyes. I went to the apartment across the street where the married couple lives with their son. The woman was crying and the firefighters carried her down the stairs. There was smoke everywhere. I told my neighbor to go down the stairs first, but in that, the firefighters also went up, because they put out the fire, then they took us outside by stairs. I and three other neighbors were taken to the hospital for swallowing smoke, but now we are fine – says the tenant, adding that as he climbed the stairs in recent days, it felt more and more like gas, especially in the attic of the building.

In the apartment next to the apartment where the explosion occurred, there was an older boy.

– I was alone in the apartment with my dog. It was terrible, everything shook, everything opened in the apartment. I just grabbed the dog and immediately flew off – says this brave boy.

A resident of the neighboring building, Marija Jevremović, says they previously approached authorities because of the smell of gas.

– In the first building only, one tenant introduced gas, and the other tenants in that and the other two buildings have no gas. But I still felt it. A month ago, I informed the Uzice-gas company. They came with a device and measured, then they said it was not gas, but some acid. I went to the inspection to report again, but they asked me to bring a confirmation from Uzice-gas or the company that brought the gas into that department that everything was fine. They came back with the devices and they measured and said it was not gas. They also measured at the well, which is about 50 m from us. When they opened the lid, you could really feel the gas, but the engineer who was there again claimed that it was not gas and whispered something to the people around him. They closed the well and said they would come to reexamine everything. They recommended that I open the window to ventilate the apartment. Everything happened in the last seven days. Two days ago, they started digging something there, says Marija Jevromović from another building.

An investigation is underway and the entire building has no electricity or water. Firefighters, ambulance, police, inspectors and representatives of the municipal administration attended the scene.

– Although the buildings have no gas, it is possible that the gas flowed down the sewer somewhere. For an explosion to occur, a large concentration of gas is needed, so much so that one could not sit in that room. Now the investigation is ongoing – said one of the inspectors.