29 October, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. A child's prank with fire nearly led to a tragedy in Postavy district, the Vitebsk regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations informed a BELTA correspondent. The day before, the Ministry of Emergency Situations received a report via the "101" line from a neighbour who saw a column of smoke coming from the window, about a fire in a two-room apartment on the fifth floor of a five-story brick residential building in Postavy. Upon arrival at the scene, it was established that while the mother, born in 1984, was doing household chores in the kitchen, her four-year-old daughter, left unattended in the adjacent room, had set bedding on fire with a lighter. Before the rescuers arrived, the woman managed to extinguish the fire herself using a bucket of water. The girl was handed over to the ambulance crew and, diagnosed with poisoning by combustion products, was taken to Postavy Central Hospital. As a result of the fire, the bed was damaged, and the walls and property in the room were smoke-stained. An autonomous fire alarm was not installed in the apartment. Considering this incident, the Ministry of Emergency Situations staff, for safety reasons, once again urges parents not to leave children unattended. -0-

BELTA