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Gas leak – evidently reason for blast at dwelling house in village

All in all, 52 people were registered in the damaged house

KRASNOYARSK, December 25 (Itar-Tass) — According to preliminary data, the reason for the blast at a dwelling house in the village of Elita, Krasnoyarsk Territory was a leak of household gas, Itar-Tass learnt at the place of the incident from head of the village council Yelena Nedybina.

According to the village council head, residents themselves evacuated two old women from the ground floor of the building. “Another man was unbelievably lucky: he had a rest at his flat on the first floor after a night shift. The blast wave tossed him into street through a window. He is alive and healthy and refused from hospitalisation after doctors inspected him,” Nedybina noted.

All in all, 52 people were registered in the damaged house. All of them were evacuated to their relatives and friends.

The head of the village council explains the absence of casualties by lucky circumstances. “Many house tenants went on walking trips, others – to Krasnoyarsk, located nearby thanks to the warm weather (it was minus three degrees Celsius in the Siberian village). If temperatures had been much lower, house residents would have left at home, and there would have been much more casualties,” she emphasized in an exclusive interview with Itar-Tass.

The blast of household gas took place on Sunday on the ground floor of the three-story 36-flat dwelling house. One man died. “The explosion occurred at the flat where the dead man lived – Mikhail Voloboyev, born 1960,” the head of the village council said.

At least 6-8 flats were damaged by the explosion. The first and the second stories caved in section No. 3; two flats are under debris, while another two flats were seriously damaged by the blast wave. Other sections were not damaged. There was no fire.

The damaged house is fenced off by police. Heating and hot water were already linked to two sections. Inspection of the damaged house will start on Monday.

The debris at the house are being cleared by five units of machinery, 23 workers, including rescuers from the territorial agency Spasatel as well as rescuers from the Siberian regional rescue detachment of the Ministry for Emergencies. Specialists with sniff dogs are working at the place of incident.

A crisis centre was set up to overcome aftermaths of the emergency. Repair teams were formed to restore the house.

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