KOCHARIAN CONCERNED OVER INCREASING NUMBER OF GAS INCIDENTS

ArmenPress
Dec 23 2004

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS: Concerned with the growing number
of fatal incidents caused by natural gas leaks president Robert
Kocharian called today a working meeting with senior officials of
bodies authorized to supervise the safety of gas use.

Kocharian’s press office said the president has instructed relevant
government agencies to combine efforts to prevent use of poorly
installed homemade gas heaters and illegal connection to municipal
gas pipes.

A man, his wife and 7-year-old child were asphyxiated by a natural gas
leak in a rural Armenian village, emergency officials said Wednesday –
the third such incident of gas poisoning in Armenia this month.

Officials were investigating the incident, which took place in
the southern village of Brnakot in Syunik, but said preliminary
information showed that a poorly installed homemade gas heater and
an illegal connection to municipal gas pipes were to blame.

Last week, a family of five died in the town of Etchmiadzin. Two days
later, a gas leak killed two people in the town of Gyumri.