21 February 2009, 08:00
Residents of Molodyozhny settlement move to safe locations
Residents of the settlement of Molodyozhny, Astrakhan Region, where houses were repeatedly set on fire in the last week, are leaving their apartments and move to safer locations. Many of them take away their children to relatives. All this time, they live in constant fear for lives their family members.
The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent came to Molodyozhny in the morning on February 19. Local residents told him that the settlement was built in mid-1980s. In those days, members of students' building teams were accommodated into these three-storey wooden barracks; the students were recruited for development of the Astrakhan gas condensate field. The barracks were designed as temporary housing facilities. In mid-1990s, refugees from Northern Caucasus began arriving to the settlement. Now they make more than a half of the population of Molodyozhny.
In the late evening on February 14, one of the barracks burnt down completely. Only brick ladder flights remained. Sixteen persons perished in fire, five children among them. Seven were hospitalized with burns. According to local residents, for them "that day was the start of nightmare."
"It's pretty awful. We live in constant fear. During daytime, and especially at night. I can't sleep for the fourth night already," said Marina, a resident of the settlement. "Earlier, I was afraid of fires in summer. You know how dry it is here in summer. And I was somehow sure that nothing can happen in winter. And here how it is. It has flashed up as gunpowder. People couldn't even gasp."
Author: Vyacheslav Yashchenko Source: CK correspondent
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