Inspection of furnaces, installation of detectors - how employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations try to prevent fires

It is cold and damp outside, it gets dark early, so we spend more and more time at home - with a soft blanket, hot tea, at a warm stove or heater. It sounds nice, but it’s not always safe. Rescuers state: from October to March, the number of fires in private homes increases sharply. The main reasons are careless handling of fire, especially when drunk and smoking, as well as violation of the rules of operation of furnaces. To prevent trouble, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations conduct explanatory conversations. Special attention is paid to large families, elderly and single people. Our correspondent joined one of the preventive raids.

Photo by EMERCOM and Oksana Nevmerzhitskaya. In the village of Bolshaya Stiklevo, near Minsk, gas supply was carried out, but many residents did not refuse conventional stoves. This creates additional risks. During the survey of households, the inspector of the supervision and prevention sector of the Minsk ROCHS Sergey Sidorkin joined the inspector of the energy and gas inspection of the branch of the State Energonadzor for Minsk and the Minsk region Veronika Borkovskaya.

For many years, a pensioner Valentina Fedorovna lives alone in her parents' home. There is a gas boiler, but the hostess admits that she periodically heats the stove in the living room. An employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations examines it, notes with approval that the basic rules are observed: a neat whitewashed rough is installed at a distance from the wall, there is a metal flood sheet. However, he states that there is no autonomous fire detector in the room, and offers to install it - completely free of charge. The hostess protests: they say, because of the old windows, smoke pulls into the room when neighbors burn bonfires, and the IPA reacts to this with an annoying squeak. To be honest, the reason for the rejection seems a little far-fetched. As tactfully as possible, Valentina Fedorovna is persuaded to still try - with the condition that the IPA will be attached as far as possible from the windows, at the furnace itself. A few "switches" prudently captured screwdriver - and reasons to worry about the life and health of an elderly woman has become less.

Veronica Borkovsky has no questions about the gas boiler, but the specialist pays attention to the state of the electrical wiring. In one of the rooms, it is frankly old, in some places even the isolation is broken - and a short circuit can cause tragedy. The inspector points out the shortcomings and advises the hostess on how to quickly eliminate them.

- Good that you came! – happy Valentina Fedorovna. - I'll take care of it soon. There are no ordinary stoves in Eva Tadeushevna's house - it is completely transferred to gas heating. Nevertheless, the proposal to install an autonomous fire detector in the living room is accepted by the pensioner with enthusiasm. It turns out that the hostess had the opportunity to personally verify the effectiveness of the device: One evening in the kitchen for no reason lit up microwave. The IPA signal, of course, helped. Immediately came running, disconnected from the network, threw into the street. Without a detector, things could have ended much worse. In the farm of Eva Tadeushevna there is also a bathhouse, which is heated by a stove. Examining it, the inspector notes that there is no difference in the rules for using furnaces in residential and household premises. And he doesn't like the metal body of a homemade boiler:

- To allow the operation of the heat generator installed in the bath, there are only two options. The device must be either factory-made or heat-intensive. That is, the possibility of burning the wall due to heating from the boiler body should be excluded. I strongly recommend that you completely cover it with a brick to calmly and safely take water treatments.

The chimney before the onset of the heating season must be cleaned of soot, and then be sure to plaster and whitewash it, experts advise. This helps at an early stage to detect cracks through which carbon monoxide can escape.

Both pensioners were handed booklets with a list of basic fire safety rules, reminded where to call in case of a fire.

Head of the Information and Public Relations Sector of the Minsk Regional Emergencies Department Elena Nemogay stressed that such raids are constantly carried out to prevent emergency situations and save people’s lives and their property.

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From October 1 to November 11, 2026, 589 fires occurred in Belarus, which killed 64 people and injured 61.

nevmer@sb.by