Two children aged seven months and, respectively, three years and their mother from Pirlita, Falesti poisoned themselves with carbon monoxide. The three were rescued and taken to the Balti Municipal Hospital. The head of the Hospital’s Emergencies Section Ala Condrea has told IPN that if the ambulance had arrived several minutes later, nobody would have been saved.

Ala Condrea also said that the family heated the house with the help of a stove. That evening, the woman woke up when the seven-month-old baby started to vomit. She immediately called her husband, but then fainted. The man called an ambulance and the children and their mother were rushed to the hospital in a serious condition. Doctors managed to save them, but the children may experience respiration problems and problems related to the nervous system in the future.

According to the Civil Protection and Emergencies Service, 80% of the total fires happen in the residential sector. The violation of the rules of using stoves is the most frequent cause of fires in the cold period of the year. Ala Condrea stressed that the heating systems should be permanently supervised so as to avoid such situations.

Civil Protection and Emergencies Service press officer Liliana Puscasu has told IPN that at the start of the heating season and during it the stoves must be checked and cleaned by specialists, while the fissures must be stopped up as they pose of threat of poisoning. The parents should never leave their children alone with the fire burning in the stove, while at night the fire must be put out. If fires occur, the poisoned persons must be taken out and given first aid.