More than 2,000 fires claim 225 lives in Belarus since year’s start
March 18, Pozirk. Emergency services have reported 2,009 fires since the start of January, with a nearly 25-percent increase year on year, according to Pozirk‘s analysis of data by the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Belarus has also seen a sharp rise in fire casualties this year, with 225 dead, up 28.6 percent year on year, while 174 people were injured, marking a 72-percent increase.
Three people have died in fires across Belarus since the early morning of March 17, with incidents in Hrodna region’s Ščučyn district, Minsk region’s Barysaŭ and Mahiloŭ, where a fire in a dormitory prompted the evacuation of 18 people, including a minor.
Earlier this month, Dzianis Žukoŭski of the emergency situations ministry linked the rise in fires and fire-related deaths to “abnormally low temperatures recorded in January and early February.”
