Owner of uninhabited flat: Maybe, blast occurred in my place

"There was an empty flat there. It is unknown whether gas was turned off there or not. It could have accumulated there for years. If the flat is not ventilated, it could have accumulated there and blast", - say representatives of the architectural department of Lahoisk district executive committee the next day after the blast.

Euroradio found the owner of that flat - Syarhej Tulupau, who lives in Baraulyany near Minsk and uses the flat in the house near Lahoisk only in Summer.

120221 Pilecki Tulupau.mp3

"I lived there, but only in Spring-Summer-Autumn time. In Winter, when there are frosts, I see no use in starting the car. Therefore, I haven't been there since January 13-14", — Syarhej says.

The man knows about the version that the blast might have occurred in his flat. He doesn't deny it. Syarhej says that he tried to turn off all electric appliances before he left. He adds that the gas stove has been one and the same in the flat for the last 30 years.

"It is possible. When I left, I turned all electric appliances off, apart from the fridge. I remember it exactly . When I was there for the last time, there was nothing special...Just the gas stove, which works on gas. I installed the counter two years ago. And that's it, there's nothing more. It (the gas stove - Euroradio) has been there since the house was built, since the late 1970s". 

Euroradio found out that Syarhej Tulupau had not been paid any compensation yet, even those two million roubles which the district officials had paid to every family which had suffered in the blast. They claim it was because he wasn't in the house when the blast occurred. Therefore, he needs no money.