Fire service: extremely tragic New Year's Eve; 5 people died in fires

Until midnight, firefighters were despatched 987 times, of which 354 times to fires due to which 8 people got injured. One person died in the village of Rudnik in Lublin Voivodeship. Furthermore, fire service intervened 530 times in car and other accidents. These events took the lives of 10 people and left 166 injured.

Between midnight and 6 a.m. the firefighters were deployed 677 times, of which 474 times to fires in which 4 people died and 9 were injured. Two of those deadly fires broke out in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. First one, in which 1 person died, occured two minutes past midnight in Żegiestów, whereas the second at 4.45 in Podgórska Wola. The latter one left 2 dead. Senior Brigadier Frątczak said that it was premature to determine the cause of the fires.

Another fire broke out in the morning in a 5-storey tenement house in Łódź. Twenty people were evacuated from the building, 1 of them died, 4 got injured.

Fire service spokesperson added that, in comparison, within the 48 hours between 31 December and 1 January 2017/2018, firefighters intevened 1988 times, of which 877 were fire-related operations. Three people died in those fires.

"Extremely tragic, uneasy night. Apparently, Poles did not take to heart the appeals for a safe farewell to the old year. There was a significant increase in number of interventions and there's still a whole day before us," said Frątczak on Tuesday morning.

"It seems we don't fully take to hearts the calls for common sense when using fireworks. I noticed it personally that despite many cities' resignation from firework shows, many people forgot about their neighbours and their animals," added the fire service spokesman.

Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP