In St. Petersburg, a janitor, climbing up the chimney of a house, pulled several people out of the fire, and then they went down the rescue ladder of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. An eyewitness to the incident, Christina, told Fontanka about this on April 26.
On April 25, a fire broke out in the house at 39 Podolskaya street early in the morning. According to the city Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, 60 “squares” were burning on the third and fourth floors of the five-story building. The signal came at 6:30 am, the fire was extinguished six hours later. “10 people were evacuated from the danger zone. There were no reports of casualties,” the department said.
According to Christina, at about 7 o’clock, when her friends woke up, the entire stairwell of the second floor was already in smoke. Naturally, rescuers were immediately called to the scene, but the fire apparently spread very quickly.
“Foreign girls shouted: “Help! Help! and began to climb out the window. We sat on the window sills while the rescuers set up the ladder,” says Christina.
At that moment, a janitor ran up to the drainpipe, “like Spider-Man he climbed up it” and began to pull people out. By that time, smoke was already pouring out of the window. The girls, waiting for help, took turns climbing out through the window sill, the janitor held them with his hands, holding on to practically nothing himself. After 50 seconds, three local residents were already in relative safety, having left the apartment filled with smoke. Rescuers quickly set up a ladder, along which the girls began to descend, one after another. All this time, the janitor held those who were still at the cornice on the third floor. Emergency Ministry employees evacuated several people using a crane.
“The city has a new superhero. I’m actually shocked how quickly he climbed up the pipe and with what speed he began to pull out the women. A real hero,” says Christina.
Fontanka got through to a hero named Olim, but, as it turned out, during our call he was again saving someone. I managed to contact him later.
“I was working, and I saw smoke coming out. The firefighters were called. The windows were opened, the girls were screaming, calling for help. I told them: “Don’t jump! The main thing is don’t jump!”, and they all scream. I thought, we need to help people,” says janitor Olim.
After that, he climbed up the pipe in a few seconds and began to pull people out. However, judging by his intonation, Olim did not attach much importance to this fact.
“I’ve been living in St. Petersburg for seven years now, working as a janitor. Before that, I was on a landing tour in Uzbekistan, so I was physically well prepared in principle and reacted quickly,” says Olim.
Today he again saved people in the Podolskaya area.
“They pulled the woman out of the apartment. It’s good that it worked through the front door. True, she took a long time to get ready, I hurried her. They saved us, everything is fine,” Olim concluded.
A total of 10 people, as well as a cat and a dog, were rescued from yesterday’s fire.
