There is no home without fire

Moscow firefighters seem to have finally found a way to leave themselves without work. At the initiative of the State Fire Service of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, the City Duma will consider amendments to the Moscow Fire Safety Law at the end of February. Their essence is simple - to oblige responsible tenants to maintain a full set of “primary fire extinguishing equipment” in their homes.

“For an apartment, a powder fire extinguisher with a volume of 2 liters and a cost of about 300 rubles is enough,” says the capital’s chief firefighter, Major General Leonid Korotchik. “I think that this is a completely acceptable price for the safety of the homes of ordinary citizens.” For low-income sections of the capital's population, Mr. Korotchik is ready to purchase fire extinguishers using funds from the city budget. True, firefighters are confused by the fact that most of the “causes of fires” are not trained to use this high-tech device. “People don’t know at all when to recharge the unit, or even how to direct the bell!” - Evgeniy Bobylev, deputy head of the center for fire prevention propaganda, agitation and public relations, is indignant. In order to somehow fill this gap in the education of the urban population, firefighters plan to organize courses for them and even attract television and print media.

After the final adoption of the law, it is planned to examine private apartments to determine if they are equipped with fire shields. “Of course, according to the law, we do not have the right to enter a home,” Mr. Bobylev nevertheless admitted, “but there are people in the city who are registered in drug treatment clinics. The police still visit them, and firefighters can visit them too. Let’s start with this, especially since such people are the most dangerous from the point of view of fires.” Apparently, the day is not far off when firefighters will closely deal with those registered in psychoneurological and tuberculosis dispensaries. Still, sick people, you never know...

The capital's authorities have not yet developed a consensus on this issue. For example, the Duma “curator” of fire safety, deputy Sergei Osadchiy, believes that it is necessary to equip private apartments with fire extinguishers only at the expense of the budget. And the coordinator of the group developing the bill, Vasily Zhukov, promises to soften the demands of firefighters. “The new law should please Muscovites,” explained Vasily Vasilyevich. In particular, it will provide for compensation payments to citizens whose housing did not burn down, but was flooded while extinguishing a fire in neighboring apartments.

Kirill VASILENKO