Following a deadly gas mixture blast in an apartment block in Kyiv on June 21 that has so far taken five lives and left many families homeless, residents are speaking up about maintenance works the gas distribution firm had been carrying out prior to the accident.
One resident, Oksana Khodulich, told journalists gas meters had been removed in some flats on the eve of the explosion to be replaced by end caps. The caps could have not met safety standards, the Apostrophe online media outlet suggested.
"I smelled gas in a bathroom and WC. It went from the ventilation holes. Also, in my kitchen. I thought someone had been exterminating roaches. But they couldn't be poisoning roaches like that because the smell was present for days," said another resident, Tetiana Oleksiivna.
According to her, if a cap got accidentally dislodged in some apartment, gas went in at full swing.
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"When that gas guy put a cap at my apartment, I asked him to put some soap there and turn on the gas to check for leaks. Had I not asked, he would've just left. But did everyone do the same?" the woman said.
As UNIAN reported, several apartments in a nine-storied apartment block at 1/5 Solomii Krushelnytskoi Street in Kyiv's Darnytsky district were damaged by an explosion at about 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 21. The explosion destroyed interfloor structures between the fourth and eighth floors.
A leak of household gas is reportedly the cause behind the incident.
More than 100 people lived in the destroyed part of the building, they were evacuated.
The incident is being investigated under Part 2 of Article 270 (violation of fire safety requirements established by law) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Police conducted searches at the gas distribution company and all utility firms servicing the apartment block.
As of Tuesday morning, the death toll reached five.