Forty people died in house fires and five people died of carbon monoxide poisoning this year, the spokesperson of the National Directorate General of Disaster Management (OKF) told MTI.
According to the information of fire lieutenant colonel Dániel Mukics, there were 3,433 apartment fires in the first half of the year, 703 fewer than in the first six months of last year, which represents a 17 percent decrease. In the course of the semester, forty-two thousand square meters of built-up area burned down.
The announcement recalls that the biggest fire was in Zalaegerszeg on May 6, where a ground-floor apartment of a condominium caught fire. The flames that destroyed eight hundred square meters also spread to the roof structure of the house. The extinguishing lasted for three hours, 30 firefighters intervened with 11 fire trucks, 49 people and two dogs were rescued from the apartment building.
During the fires of the same period last year, 49 people died, nine more than in this half of this year, this year there were five fires in which two people lost their lives, the spokesperson said.
During the period of the year so far, an average of 19 fires broke out in homes per day, during which 288 people were injured – ten less than in the same period last year -, most of them suffered from smoke poisoning. A total of 6,737 fire trucks were called to apartment fires, and the firefighters spent a total of 2,416 hours extinguishing the fires.
The longest intervention lasted 18 hours, when a 350-square-meter family house with a thatched roof burned on Kápolnásnyék on April 6. Forty firefighters with nine vehicles prevented the flames from spreading to the neighboring barn and garage, recalled the OKF spokesperson in his announcement.
In the first half of the year, 405 residential buildings became uninhabitable due to fire, and 1,174 people had to leave their homes. In order to clarify the exact place, cause and time of the fire, an investigation was launched after 149 apartment fires. Most often, buildings caught fire due to an electrical fault, an open flame, a fault in the heating system, cooking or baking, burning debris or garbage, or the technical condition of the chimney – the spokesperson listed, adding that the fire was caused by deliberate arson in 79 homes.
17 percent of the fires started in the kitchen, 16 percent in the chimney, and 9 percent in the bedroom.
Out of the 3,433 homes affected by the fire, only 14 had smoke detectors, even though these devices reliably signal in the initial phase of the fire, when there is still time to act, to extinguish the fire that has just ignited, or to escape and call the fire brigade, the spokesperson pointed out.
Firefighters have been called 553 times this year due to carbon monoxide, a little less than a year earlier. 118 people suffered some degree of carbon monoxide poisoning, and five people could no longer be helped.
Carbon monoxide is produced when there is an open flame indoors and there is insufficient air supply around the fire. Since we also need hot water in the summer, it is also a threatening source of danger at this time of the year – warned Dániel Mukics in the announcement.
