A dacha house caught fire in the settlement of Solnechny near Petropavlovsk at around 22:30 on the evening of 24 October, and help arrived thanks to patrol police officers, the website infohub.kz reports.
Kuanysh Suleimenov, commander of a patrol police battalion with the Petropavlovsk city police department, and his deputy Zhomart Tasbayev were checking on the work of patrol crews at the time. Spotting the fire, they reported it to the operations center, called the fire service and headed to the scene. A neighbor nearby said someone might be inside the house.
By the time the officers arrived, the building was already fully engulfed in flames, and the fire made it impossible to approach from the entrance to the property. The officers had to climb over the fence of a neighboring house. Fortunately, the dacha owner had managed to get out — the man was lying a meter from the burning building. Reaching him was difficult: intense heat blocked the way, and slate was exploding on the roof.
Despite the danger, Kuanysh Suleimenov and Zhomart Tasbayev lifted the man, carried him off the property and called an ambulance. The 63-year-old dacha owner began to come round only in the patrol car.
Police stressed that he showed clear signs of intoxication. He could not explain the cause of the fire and did not even seem to grasp what had happened — he asked for his boots and his phone to be brought to him. Only later did the rescued man realize he had come within a hair's breadth of death.
A fire crew that arrived at the scene extinguished the blaze, and the officers returned to their duties.