Careless handling of fire: article of the Criminal Code and reasons

Careless handling of open flame sources is one of the most common causes of fires in various places - from rooms in multi-storey (private) residential buildings to production workshops that have a fire and explosion hazard category.

Unlike technical reasons that lead to fire, for example, due to illiterate installation, operation of electrical wiring, technological reasons - due to improper process management, careless handling of fire sources is based on human mistakes - ignorance of fire safety rules, negligence and addictions.

Causes of fires due to careless handling of fire

Causes

The most serious fires in terms of the scale of destruction and the amount of direct (indirect) damage due to carelessness when handling fire occur in industries where expensive technological equipment and control equipment are installed; at warehouse facilities where inventory items are concentrated.

The shortcomings of both minimum fire safety training and low professional qualifications, lack of control on the part of managers, specialists of engineering and technical services, and poor discipline of workers lead to the following incidents:

Carrying out fire hazardous work in areas of production workshops that are not prepared (not cleared) of combustible materials without issuing work permits for performing hot work.
Checking with torches and burning paper the presence and strength of air draft in the ducts of ventilation systems.
Warming frozen soil with fires without the knowledge that underground electrical routes or pipelines, including those with flammable liquids, pass under this place.

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Causes of fires

Examples and statistics

I will heat with blowtorches, torches, sections of pipeline utilities, shut-off valves on process tanks, tanks, regardless of fire safety requirements at gas stations, oil and petroleum product warehouses.
Smoking outside specially designated areas, which is a gross violation of the “Fire Safety Rules in the Russian Federation.” When smoking in such unprepared conditions, unextinguished cigarettes end up in dry grass, wood waste, and other flammable debris, which often leads to the appearance of fires that develop into fires.

In addition to negligence in the workplace, unfortunately, many both poorly educated and overconfident adults; The younger generation, to whom no one, perhaps to their misfortune, wants to explain the basics of fire safety, behave similarly at home.

At home

A person, being at home, subconsciously feels safe, and is often capable of very dangerous manipulations with sources of open fire:

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Open fire

Definition and Use

Smoking wherever you please - on the sofa in the living room, in the bed in the bedroom, without thinking at all that you can easily fall asleep from fatigue, the late time of day, often from alcohol intoxication, and never wake up again.
When smoking on the balcony, throw unextinguished cigarettes to the will of gravity and the wind, which sometimes brings potential sources of ignition into the rooms of neighboring apartments, on loggias, where many owners store a lot of combustible things, which often leads to fires and deaths.
Fold, throw out seemingly extinguished cigarette butts anywhere, including in trash cans, trash cans, bags made of combustible materials, cigarette boxes, matches.
Carelessly handle the gas heater for heating water, the stove for cooking - do not carry out maintenance on time, leave burning burners, burners for a long time completely unattended, hoping for automatic shutdown,
Heat vegetable oils and animal fats, which can lead to fire.
Dry clothes over an open fire.
Use pyrotechnic products at home.
Burn grass, combustible garbage, make fires on the territory of a private household or summer cottage.
Install candles on combustible bases, next to flammable materials, substances, or not securely fasten them, which can lead to a fall or fire.
When turning off electric lighting, use open flame sources.

The incorrect use of heating stoves and fireplaces in practice is closely intertwined with careless handling of open fire - this is ignition using flammable (combustible) liquids, despite the fire hazard of oil and petroleum products, gasoline; not completely closed firebox doors, storing firewood under them.

Children's prank

Lack of attention from parents and teachers often leads to the fact that children's games become too dangerous. This also applies to the understandable interest of every person in the fascinating process of the origin and development of the “fire flower”.

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Children's prank with fire

Cause of fire and consequences

But it’s one thing when this process occurs under close supervision, the guidance of older relatives, teachers, instructors on a picnic, on a hike; Another thing is when children, having taken matches or a lighter at home without asking, begin to experiment on their own:

Set fire to poplar fluff, dry leaves, and grass.
Make fires in places absolutely unsuitable for this event - in basements, technical floors, attics; near stored combustible materials, including where security and fire safety at construction sites are poorly organized.
Use pyrotechnic products independently, which leads not only to fires, but also to serious injuries and burns.

Therefore, early training in life safety in the school curriculum on the correct handling of fire is a necessity to give children the necessary skills and instill prohibitions.

In the forest

Cases when, due to negligence, inattention, and simply a disregard for the stupidity of people who behave as “masters of life” in forests, destructive fires arise that destroy thousands of hectares of forest area - this, unfortunately, is not uncommon.

Main reasons:

Lighting fires in unprepared areas, including those not cleared of combustible forest debris, under the canopy of trees.
Leaving fires unextinguished.
Ignition of fires, barbecues, flammable liquids, and gas liquids.
Smoking in the forest, throwing matches and cigarette butts.

In addition to city dwellers vacationing outside the city, hunters also make their sad contribution by using wads for cartridges made of flammable materials capable of smoldering.

Children's prank with fire

Children's pranks with fire often cause fires. As practice shows, such fires often occur due to children’s lack of skills in handling fire carefully, insufficient control over their behavior by adults, and in some cases, parents’ inability to organize their children’s leisure time.

At the age of three to seven years, children often repeat the actions and actions of adults in their games, imitating their work. The desire for independence is especially evident at a time when children are left alone. You cannot be sure that a child, left alone at home, will not decide to play with a box of matches or a lighter, will not want to set fire to paper, or will not start a fire that he saw in the forest.

Dear parents, the problem of so-called children's pranks with fire is very acute. And it is very important to remember that the main task is to prevent a possible tragedy, to be nearby and even one step ahead. Our efforts should be aimed at daily preventive work with children, in order, if not to exclude, then at least to minimize the number of fires and other incidents involving children, to avoid injuries and accidents. After all, adults are primarily responsible for the actions and actions of children.

Don't set a bad example for your children. Keep matches out of the reach of children. Under no circumstances should you keep faulty or homemade electrical appliances in your home. You can use only serviceable devices that have a certificate of compliance with safety requirements, with a built-in device for automatically disconnecting the device from the electrical power source.

Remember, a little carelessness can lead to big trouble. Tragic cases clearly show that the main reason for the death of children in a fire lies in their inability to act in a critical situation. During a fire, a subconscious instinct is triggered in children: the child tries to hide, looking for an imaginary shelter - under the bed, under the table. There trouble overtakes him. Therefore, be sure to teach your child what to do in case of fire.

If you see children making a fire on their own, playing with matches and lighters, flammable liquids, do not pass by, do not remain indifferent, stop them!

Life has shown that where awareness-raising work is carried out among children aimed at preventing fires from children's pranks with fire, the danger of fires for this reason is minimized.

Examples and statistics

Cases of carelessness of people when handling open fire are constantly demonstrated throughout the country by the media - children receive severe burns from their own pranks; Summer cottages, villages, agricultural lands, and forests burn out from grass burning and fires lit by adults.

After performing gas welding and other hot work, as a result of the lack of control over the places where the work was carried out, fires appear, which at night is almost guaranteed to lead to the development of the combustion process in the presence of a fire load.

Due to careless handling of gas equipment, including checking for leaks in pipelines with open fire, explosions and fires occur.

A huge number of fires caused by the careless use of open fire is confirmed by official statistics. So, in 2021 there are 37 thousand 195 fires (132074) or 28.2% of the total.

What to do in case of fire at home

To reduce fire damage, you need to know what to do in the event of a fire. The algorithm of actions depends on what caused the fire.

Apartment

Fire in the apartment

If there is a fire in the apartment, you need to act as follows:

Call the fire department.
Evacuate people from a hot house.
If possible, you should try to put out the fire before firefighters arrive. The fireplace can be covered with a blanket or covered with sand.
Use cloth dressings moistened with water.
De-energize the room.
Close windows and doors, as well as cracks. This is done to prevent oxygen from getting inside, which increases the fire.
Do not extinguish electrical wiring or live household appliances, as well as burning liquids, with water.

Responsibility and consequences

In addition to major material damage to real estate and citizens' property, fires caused by carelessness when handling fire claim many human lives, including family members of the perpetrators; lead to burns, injuries, and illnesses of other people.

The state, protecting citizens, investigates every fire, conducting an inquiry and investigation in order to determine material damage, accurately establish the cause of occurrence, the presence or absence of a culprit.

If the guilty person, including due to careless handling of an open fire, is identified by the inquiry/investigation bodies, then liability arises as provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation. Depending on the consequences of the fire, this may be either a fine or criminal punishment.

Article on the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation

When the cause of the fire is established, the person at fault is established, but the damage is insignificant, then such actions fall under Article 20.4 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, which provides for fines in the form of an administrative liability measure for violations of fire safety requirements that led to a fire:

Destruction or damage to someone else's property, or causing minor or moderate harm to health: for citizens from 4-5 thousand rubles, for officials - 40-50 thousand rubles, for legal entities - 350-400 thousand rubles.
Causing serious harm or death: for legal entities 600 thousand to 1 million rubles. or administrative suspension of activities for up to 90 days.

Article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

According to Article 168 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the destruction or damage of someone else's property on a large scale as a result of negligence when handling fire, the court requires the person responsible for causing the fire to fully compensate for losses incurred for this reason, or punishes:

A fine of up to 120 thousand rubles, or the salary/other income of the convicted person for a period of up to 1 year;
or compulsory work for a period of up to 480 hours;
or correctional labor for up to 2 years;
or restriction of freedom for up to 1 year;
or forced labor for up to 1 year;
or imprisonment for up to 1 year.

If people died in a fire, then the actions of the perpetrators fall under Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

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Arson

Statistics, reasons and responsibility

Causing death by negligence: correctional labor/restriction of freedom/forced labor/imprisonment – for up to 2 years. One of the options by court decision.
Causing death by negligence due to improper performance by the guilty person of his professional duties: restriction of freedom for up to 3 years, or forced labor for up to 3 years with or without deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions/activities for up to 3 years, or imprisonment for up to 3 years also with or without deprivation of the right to hold positions/activities.
Causing death by negligence of 2 or more persons: restriction of freedom for up to 4 years, or forced labor for up to 4 years, or imprisonment for up to 4 years with deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions/activities for up to 3 years or without this prohibition.

The last two paragraphs of the article fully apply to facility managers responsible for industrial safety who were negligent in the performance of their duties.

Careless handling of fire when smoking

We have a lot of smokers, and, alas, their number is growing from year to year. The dangers of smoking from a medical point of view have been discussed more than once. Here are the fire statistics. The most common cause of death in a fire is smoking in bed. 70% of people died for this reason.

It is no secret that often events involving the death of people develop according to the scenario: I drank, lit a cigarette, fell asleep, did not wake up. Even if we exclude the first link from this chain, sad consequences cannot be avoided.

Most often, victims of fire in such cases are citizens who abuse alcohol and lead an antisocial lifestyle. And if on the street a drunk smoker could drop a burning cigarette on the ground or asphalt, then at home it falls on the floor or in the bed. What if this is also an apartment in a high-rise building?

At best, the consequences are burns of varying severity and significant material damage, but, as a rule, careless smokers pay a price much greater than can be expressed in monetary terms - life, that’s what they have to sacrifice on the altar of their own carelessness, and often not only your life.

Fire in a cabin

On November 24 at 01.46 a report was received about a fire in a metal trailer in the village of Dubrovo on the street.
Soviet. As a result, the property inside the trailer was destroyed. There were no casualties. The cause of the fire is being established. The version under consideration is careless handling of fire. The culprits of fires often die not from fire, but as a result of poisoning by combustion products. In a state of alcoholic intoxication, people are not able to adequately perceive reality, and, as a result, the instinct of self-preservation is dulled. They fall asleep with an unextinguished cigarette, which first sets fire to the bedding and then other property.

Unfortunately, not everyone understands this the first time. Rescuers rescue some heavy smokers more than once.

Let's dance from the stove

On November 26 at 10.21 a fire was reported in Rechitsa on the street.
Lermontov. As a result of the fire, the ceiling burned through. And on the same day, only at 18.10, the bathhouse in Ag. Zashchebe. As a result, the roof was destroyed over the entire area, the ceiling, walls and property inside the bathhouse were damaged.

In both the first and second cases, the version of the fire under consideration is a violation of the rules for operating furnaces, heat-generating units and devices.

Also last week, rescuers went out three times to put out fires caused by soot burning in a chimney and smoldering floor beams in a residential building in Krasnopolye and Glinnaya Sloboda.

In addition, there may be only one ill-fated cigarette, but there may be several victims of the fire at once. Because of a smoker, neighbors may also need to be evacuated. Moreover, most of these fires happen at night.

Therefore, it would be naive to believe that the problem of “careless smoking in bed” will never affect you personally.

Prevention

To prevent the situation from reaching such extremes, it is necessary:

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Fire prevention and its tasks

Actively conduct fire prevention propaganda, train adults - at the place of work, conducting instructions on fire safety, training in fire safety equipment; children - from 1st grade according to life safety programs.
Prohibit entry into forest areas during fire danger periods to ensure fire safety in forests.
Report to the media about fires that occurred due to careless handling of open fire.

The main thing is that everyone needs to have self-discipline, not to commit rash actions in any cases related to fire - from the need to put out a match, cigarette, fire to compliance with safety rules when performing hot work in production.

Autonomous fire detector

One way to protect your life is to install autonomous fire detectors. This device is the most effective means of detecting smoke in the house in the shortest possible time and makes it possible to take measures to protect family and property from fire. The most successful solution may be to connect the API into a single network with neighboring houses or apartments, as well as output the API signal to a light and sound device located on the facade of the house. If the owner of a “dysfunctional” house does not respond to the signal, the alarm will be raised by passers-by or neighbors whose API is triggered at the same time.

While following fire safety rules in your household, don't forget to keep an eye on the disadvantaged families living in your neighborhood. Be vigilant and do not be indifferent to such people, because only your attention and timely measures taken will help avoid tragic consequences and protect your life and property.

Once again we remind you of the telephone numbers:

101 – fire service,

112 – unified dispatch service.

After dialing the number, you need to briefly say the following:

– reason for the call (fire, accident, smell of gas, etc.);

– exact address (street, house number, apartment number, floor, entrance, code);

– your last name and telephone number.

Remember: fire spreads very quickly, so it is better not to create situations where it occurs.

Inspection commissions are working in an intensive mode in the Rechitsa district

Every week, not only on weekdays, but also on weekends, rescuers with interested subjects of prevention visit lonely and lonely citizens, large families, etc. So, last week, 12 inspection commissions worked in the city and district, which examined more than 130 households and apartments of citizens.

Citizens who live in households and use stoves for heating come under special control, since with the advent of cold weather, the number of fires associated with violations of the operation of stove heating has increased. Living in such a fire-hazardous environment, older people are exposed to serious challenges and difficulties that they cannot cope with on their own. When you come to visit your parents, be sure to check whether everything is in order with their stove heating, whether electrical appliances and electrical equipment are in working order.