27 December 2001
Young mother, three children killed in house fire in Brest Region
A 26-year-old mother and her three children died late on December 25 in their burning house in the village of Lyshcha near Pinsk in Brest Region.
The fire was reported at 8 p.m. Firefighters arrived ten minutes later, but the house was already engulfed in flames, leaving no chance of escape to the young woman and her three kids - a one-year-old boy and his sisters aged three and five.
The father of the family was away visiting neighbors when the fire started. He rushed to the rescue only to find the house all ablaze. He had to abandon his attempts to get in through a window and was taken to the hospital with second-degree burns.
Authorities have several theories as to what caused the tragedy. It is considered most likely that the fire was unintentionally started by the children, whom their drunk mother presumably left unattended.
This is the second time this month that several people die in a house fire in the Pinsk district. Two weeks ago, a fire caused by careless smoking killed a man and his two adult sons in the village of Koshevichi.
http://brestonline.com/en/news/news136.html