vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #545 / Special reports / Reading article...

Vladivostok firefighters and rescuers on Monday staged a picket at the nine-storey building, where this January nine people were killed and over 20 injured in a severe fire, to protest against the city’s parking jams which impede their work when saving people’s lives.

The fire fighters claimed that unregulated parking lots in front of most of the city’s multi-storied office buildings block the way from the fire-brigades to the victims.

During the deadly fire which occurred in a nine-story building in downtown Vladivostok January 16, 2006, nine women died on the eighth floor receiving the worst of the blaze, and over 20 were injured. Haste in putting the fire down was greatly aggravated by fire-engines unable to get through the whole lot of parked cars to the building.

The firefighters and rescuers decided to hold a picket after their last week’s inspection revealed numerous cases of spontaneous parking potentially obstructing speedy access to emergency response teams.

During the picket, the fire engines blocked the entrance way to the building while the evacuating vehicles removed all improperly parked cars.

Police and emergency specialists kept public order during the picket. No incidents related to the car owners were reported, the statement from Primorye’s branch of the federal fire inspector said.

This Sunday, during the fire in a 14-story residential building, a fire brigade had difficulties trying to reach the house and evacuate two girls off the upper floors due to the crowded parking near the building, the statement said.

The problem of unauthorized parking lots in Vladivostok has its roots in a lack of official parking spaces in the city which boasts an abundance of cars but suffers from bad roads and narrow streets. The city’s administration management so far has failed to solve the problem of sufficient parking for Vladivostok drivers and of eliminating the parking jam headache for rescuer services.