On the afternoon of October 10, the emergency services of Veliky Novgorod received a message about a fire in an apartment building. When the fire and rescue units arrived at the scene, they saw smoke coming from the windows of the 4th floor, and a woman with children was standing on the balcony," Moscow 24 journalists told.
The fire occurred in the children's room and covered ten square meters. To put out the fire, it took the help of six cars and more than twenty employees of the fire and rescue unit No. 3 of Veliky Novgorod, among whom was Valery Zelyukin.
According to him, in order to get into the burning apartment, they had to connect breathing apparatus. In order for them to go inside with a water barrel, the door to the apartment had to be opened. And at this time, the driver of the car ladder laid it out to the balcony window, the firefighter went upstairs to help the victims get down.
"Black smoke was pouring out of the window, a mother with many children was standing on the balcony. The sofa was on fire in the children's room, the smoke was so strong that she had no way to get out. At first we wanted to take her and the children down the street, but the children are very small, one, three and four years old, so it was problematic to take them down the stairs. We decided to take the family out through the apartment," said Valery Zelyukin, an employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Squad commander Anton Kuhlevsky started extinguishing the fire, while the rest continued to search for victims. When it became clear that there was no one else in the apartment except the mother and children, the firefighters went out onto the balcony.
"My colleague Vladimir Podyapolsky calmed the children and the mother, took off his breathing apparatus, put it on his mother, put the rescue device on her youngest daughter, handed them to our comrade Anton Kuhlevsky, who took people out into the fresh air. Then they put the rescue device on the older girl, connected her to my device, and I took her out to the stairwell, where there was no smoke. Then he returned to pick up the remaining child, all according to the same scheme," Valery Zelyukin shares his memories.
And then the woman tells the rescuers that there are cats and a dog in the apartment. Without hesitation, Valery went back to look for pets.
"I returned to the apartment, the fire was already extinguished by that time and the smoke more or less began to dissipate. The guys and I started looking for animals, I found one cat in the kitchen under the table, took it out to the stairwell and at that moment the second cat ran out - I caught it, took them to the hostess. And this moment Andrei Ilyin found the dog, picked it up and also carried it to the owner," says Valery.
On the way, the dog bit his savior, apparently out of joy. But there was a "surprise" waiting for firefighters on the street. The woman reported that there is a third cat in the house. When Valery Zelyukin went up to the apartment, he began to look for the tailed one. But he did not return alone, catching a cat that was hiding in the children's room under the bed, Valery also took out an aquarium with a turtle. Thanks to the speed and bravery of the Novgorod rescuers, no people, animals, or reptiles were injured in this fire.
Photos of the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Veliky Novgorod