The number of persons that died in house fires since the beginning of this year tripled compared to the same period last year, while the number of house fires increased by 33.8%. 13 persons lost their lives in 96 fires. One of the main causes of this significant increase are the low temperatures registered during winter holidays, head of the Centre for Propagating Anti Fire Knowledge Liliana Puscasu told Info-Prim Neo. People tried to warm their homes better, without taking precaution measures. The majority of house fires were caused because of ignoring safety rules when exploiting heating stoves and by using faulty electric heaters. Firemen and Rescuers Service complained that the snowy roads in some settlements hinder firemen from reaching quickly the targets, taking into account that the distance from some firemen units to rural localities is 40-50 km. At the same time, the 901 Service appeals to citizens not to leave their children alone at home, not to use electric heaters out of order and to avoid plugging more than one home appliance into the same power outlet. Five house fires, one of which resulted in a dead person took place on January 9 on the territory of the country. The 45-year-old man fell asleep with a burning cigarette. The fire burned the bed and the armchair from his house situated in Cheltuitori village, Chisinau municipality.