Burned out in Batumi, Homeless vs. “Energo-Pro Georgia

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

A one-storied dwelling was burnt down in the village of Gantiadi that housed three families. Local authority have only allocated only one thousand GEL as compensation for those family. The owners of the house are waiting for the investigation to be finished and then they intend to make a legal appeal against the “Energo-Pro Georgia”.

Thirteen people, among them three under-age children, lived in the house that burnt down at night of September 3. That night, only Murman Diasamidze and his mother, a retired woman were in the house. The injured people claim the reason for the fire was high voltage of the electricity and this was the responsibility of the energy company.

“We warned the electrician several times that the voltage was changing very often and mostly it was too high. After our house was burnt down, the high voltage blew the bulbs of our neighbors. One of the neighbors, Chaghalidze has his TV-set burnt down,” said one of the victims, Pridon Beridze.

They could not save anything in the house: “We could not take anything out of the house. We just survived and came out alive. It is fortunate that nobody was injured. However, it could have been worst as not everybody home when the fire started. If we had been home at 1:00 AM it could have been a disaster for us as we would have been sleeping by that time and it would have been too late before we realized that a fire had broken out.”

In addition, the victims state the fire engine did not arrive on time. Finally, the brigade just managed to save the houses of the neighbors. “We called the fire-brigade but for extra measure one of our neighbors went to the fire service center working for oil pipe-line (located three kilometers away). This too was not adequate as employees of service center replied they had very expensive fire retardants and these could not be wasted on the house. As for ordinary brigade, they came at 01:47 AM though we called them at 00:15 AM,” said Murman Diasamidze.

Khusein Sirabidze, the head of fire service center within Batumi City Hall, stated that people called the brigade too late. “Seven fire-engines had actually arrived at the scene of the fire. However, when our people arrived there the roof of the house was already burnt down and caved in and nothing could be done.”

Nevertheless, the record-book of the fire brigade contains the time indicated by the victims and not the alternative claim.  One of the victims said that a member of fire brigade requested him to sign the protocol as to the fire and to look at the time when the fire was put out, as this had been improperly recorded. Despite all recriminations, residents of the burned house do not intend to appeal against the Fire Brigade because “they will fire employees but those who are actually responsible, the board members will go unpunished.”

Giorgi Surmava, the PR manager, of the Batumi office for the “Energo-Pro Georgia”, heard about the incident from the Human Rights Center. Then he called the controller of the sub-station of their company and found out that Energo-Pro Georgia is not guilty for the incident because: “The cables and electricity transformer supplying the district with the electricity were not damaged during the incident. Thus, if the voltage was raised, our equipment should have been damaged too.” However, the company did not deny that one of the families in Batumi had their TV-set destroyed because of sudden high surge of voltage and the Energo-Pro Georgia had to reimburse for the set.

Those afflicted that the fire actually was a result of the high voltage. They are waiting for the investigation to finish and then they intend to appeal against the company. They will be demanding full reimbursement for the damage. “We are now homeless. If they had properly regulated the voltage the fire would not have started in the first place. They are now obliged to compensate for our losses.”

Emzar Veliadze, investigator for the Makhinjauri police department, is in charge of the incident; though he refused to comment.

Gantiadi village is within Khelvachauri municipality. Teimuraz Dumbadze, the district governor, stated that local budget can provide only one thousand GELS as a compensation for the victims. However, these people have not received that money either. “What should we do with one thousand GELS?! Those people who have only roof damaged also receive one thousand GELS as well and we, who have the whole house destroyed, should also get that same amount of money.”

The people have no hope whatsoever that  Levan Varshalomidze, the leader of Adjara, would be able or willing to assist them. However, they applied to him as a last hope. “They asked to come for the reply next week. They are not hopeful that they response will be positive?”

Currently, three families still continue to live in the village. The family of Diasamidzes lives in one room belonging to theneighbor. Pridon Beridze shelters at another neighbor; Bagrat Gogitidze’s family lives on the second floor of a livestock facility.