Holidays with a spark: The New Year began with explosions and fires

In connection with fires, fires and other New Year's incidents, the Minister of Health of Russia Mikhail Murashko even made an appeal. "With the beginning of the New Year holidays, we, unfortunately, see an increase in the number of victims in incidents, often related to alcohol abuse: these are road accidents, fires in residential buildings, injuries associated with the use of pyrotechnics. There are many children among the victims these days", - Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said.

Russians are against New Year's fireworks, but the fireworks are rattling

According to opinion polls, the majority of Russians are against New Year's fireworks.

The roar of fireworks on New Year's Eve irritates every fourth Russian – this follows from a survey conducted by the Superjob service in 380 localities in Russia. According to his data, endless volleys of New Year's fireworks irritate every fourth, boring "blue lights" — every eighth, and excessive alcohol — every tenth. 

Most of all, on New Year's Eve, Russians are annoyed by the noise from fireworks and firecrackers: every fourth respondent (24%) said that the many-hour fireworks outside the window causes exclusively negative emotions. Every year, Russians are increasingly annoyed by the roar of New Year's fireworks: compared to 2021, the number of dissatisfied with the noise has increased by 5 points, and compared to 2020 - by 8 points.

Nevertheless, fireworks and firecracker explosions are heard day and night, despite the fact that most regions have abandoned high-rise city fireworks, and in Moscow residents were reminded that it is forbidden to launch pyrotechnics from 23:00 to 7:00 according to the law on silence.According to the press service of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation with reference to data from the Federal Center for Disaster Medicine, 955 fires occurred in the first day of 2023, most of them in residential buildings, 230 people were injured, including 19 children.

56 people were killed.

Explosions from Moscow to Novosibirsk

The fun of pyromaniacs began right on New Year's Eve and right on Red Square.

On December 31, an unknown man decided to set fire to a Christmas tree on Red Square. The attacker approached the tree with a canister, poured gasoline on it and tried to set it on fire. But the pyromaniac was not allowed to finish his plan: he was detained by the police.

Another resonant fire also occurred in the center of Moscow.  It happened in the restaurant "Taras Bulba" in the 1st Volkonsky Lane, near the Garden Ring, on January 1. The fire quickly engulfed a three-story wooden building near the Tsvetnoy Boulevard metro station, spreading from the first to the upper floors. The total area of the fire was 200 square meters. There were no people in Taras Bulba at the time of the fire. But the situation was complicated by the fact that there was a gas cylinder in the room. 35 pieces of equipment and more than 100 firefighters went to the scene and started extinguishing the fire.  

Fireworks and firecrackers have caused trouble for emergency services in many cities of Russia . In Barnaul, in the Altai Territory, unsuccessfully launched New Year's fireworks literally "shot"people. It happened on Pavlovsky Trakt Street — one of the main streets in the city. The footage from the surveillance camera showed how adults and children watched the fireworks in the courtyard of a residential building, while the lights of one of the fireworks began to fly in their direction. Volleys of fireworks also hit nearby cars. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident.

But in Novosibirsk there were not without victims: there a local resident decided to arrange a fireworks display in the courtyard, but his pyrotechnic installation collapsed, and the launched fireworks landed on the balconies of the nearest high-rise building. Volleys of fireworks flew into the apartment building, scattering sparks, after that several balconies broke out. In the house, the balconies on the sixth and then on the tenth floor first caught fire. According to local residents, a man with a child set the salute crookedly, and when shots were fired, he started shooting at the balconies. After seeing a fire in a residential building, the man fled.  

But in Zheleznogorsk, the explosion occurred not because of fireworks and firecrackers, but because of alcohol in the literal sense of the word. There, an explosion occurred in a high-rise building on the street of the 60th anniversary of the Komsomol.  The blast wave knocked out the windows of an apartment on one of the upper floors. The cause of the emergency was the explosion of a moonshine still. As a result, the owner of the apartment tore off both hands, and he died of blood loss in an ambulance.

During the holidays, the medical service throughout the country works around the clock in an enhanced mode, providing assistance to emergency patients, whose number is growing during the holidays. "With the beginning of the New Year holidays, we, unfortunately, see an increase in the number of victims in incidents, often related to alcohol abuse: these are road accidents, fires in residential buildings, injuries associated with the use of pyrotechnics. There are many children among the victims these days", - Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said in his New Year's Address.Holidays under military protection

After the ban of Moscow officials to launch fireworks on the streets of the city, New Year's holidays are held in the capital quite safely.

To date, only one case of fire in a residential building is known. According to the 360 TV channel, a firecracker launched from the ground hit the balcony of the seventh floor of a residential building and set it on fire. Fortunately, the emergency workers who arrived liquidated the fire in a few minutes; there were no casualties. All this looks almost peaceful against the background of reports from other cities: for example, in the Altai Territory on the night of December 31 to January 1, a total of 22 fires were eliminated, 16 of them in the residential sector, eight people were rescued during extinguishing.

Few people know that the military provides peace in the capital during the New Year holidays. According to the Ministry of Defense, the security of Moscow from the air on the festive night was provided by more than 1,800 servicemen of the 1st Army of Air and missile Defense of special purpose Aerospace Forces. In total, during the New Year holidays, about 20 thousand air defense and missile defense personnel will be on combat duty.