MINSK, 10 April (BelTA) – Violations of safety regulations in crowded places will be punished. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko made the relevant statement as he met with representatives of the country's largest state-run mass media on 10 April, BelTA has learned.
Alexander Lukashenko mentioned a recent evacuation of 299 people from a hospital in Soligorsk after fire in the hospital basement was reported. The head of state attributed the rapid response to the emergency partially to the recent deadly fire in the shopping mall Zimnyaya Vishnya in the Russian city of Kemerovo. “The Kemerovo disaster gave us a jolt. Three hundred people were evacuated in the blink of an eye,” said Alexander Lukashenko.
The president reminded about tough punishments, which lie in store for those, who violate safety regulations in crowded places. He said he wanted an investigation into the reasons behind the accident in the Soligorsk hospital.
It was reported earlier that cosmetic repairs were in progress on the sixth floor of the Soligorsk hospital. Some components of the ventilation system were dismantled at the time the accident occurred. Waste (paper, rags, dust) in the basement caught fire but was promptly extinguished by fire fighters. An investigation into the cause of the accident is in progress. The investigators believe that someone was smoking in the ventilation plant room and dropped the cigarette butt into the ventilation shaft with flammable construction waste at the bottom. The fire was detected promptly. The timely arrival of fire fighters and the well-organized evacuation prevented the fire from spreading.
