A gas cylinder was evacuated last night from an apartment situated on Dacia Boulevard, in the Botanica district of Chișinău. The firefighters' intervention took place after a gas leak was felt by apartment building residents. The apartment was only connected to the electricity grid, while being disconnected from the natural gas network. For several hours, the apartment block was disconnected from the network, while the residents were evacuated.
Vasile Moroi, the head of the housing-communal department within the Praeture Botanica, wrote on Facebook that the problem was reported by a resident. Over the course of four hours a thorough examination took place of the technical floor of the apartment building, of all the apartments, the storehouses, the basement, etc. The cylinder was found in an apartment on the first floor. The intervention team forced the door in order to enter the house. The owner was not home, however, he denied on the phone having a gas cylinder in the apartment.
The case was documented by the relevant bodies. Praeture Botanica will carry out checks in other housing building that are not connected to the natural gas supply network in order to identify people who use the gas cylinders in apartments and endanger the lives of other apartment building residents.
The General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations said that the propane-butane gas cylinder was detected in the apartment's kitchen, while the gas leak occurred due to a faulty faucet.
Vice-praetor Vitalie Jacot wrote on Facebook that if an explosion occurred on the first floor of the building, taking into account that the building is not "monolithic", the consequences would have been more tragic compared to the explosion that occurred in the Râșcani distric.
In October last year, an explosion occurred in an apartment building on Moscova Boulevard, 11/5, following a cylinder gas leak. Several apartments on three floors were destroyed. Five people died, including a child. The criminal investigation was ceased because the owner of the apartment where the explosion occurred died.
