On February 15th, the relatives of 82 year-old Arevhat Galstyan, a resident of the Solak village in the Kotayk Marz, received word that Mrs. Galstyan has received skin burns due to a gas explosion in her house. Her daughter Araksya states that, ‘she got up to light the gas and all of a sudden it blew up. When we got there the entire house was in flames. Nothing was left.’

Both the Village Mayor and representatives from the HayRusGazart Company were aware of the blast taking place but they didn’t raise much of a fuss since only the hands of Mrs. Galstyan had been injured. Even the relatives believed at the time that the accident was caused by the elderly lady’s carelessness. With the help of the Mayor’s Office the house was quickly repaired. Mrs. Galstyan moved back in along with her daughter, sister and grandchild. They wished to care for the elderly woman at home.

The second explosion happened when Mrs. Galstyan’s wounds still hadn’t healed. The daughter recounts that, “Early that morning my mother said she was feeling a chill. I got up and turned on the small electric heater. Not five minutes later the explosion hit like a bolt of lightning.” This time around the blast injured four people. All the furniture in the house was burnt as well.

News of the second explosion quickly reached the Mayor’s Office and the gas company. Araksya recounts that, “The people from the gas company came and said that we had a ‘short-circuit’. After speaking to us they were about to leave when Rubik, the gas company representative, said he wanted to do a final check. He lit a piece of paper and walked through the house. It was when he entered the last room that the blast occurred.”

It was after all this that the HayRusGazart workers theorized as to the real cause of the accidents. The gas pipeline that serves some 250 local homes runs some 5 meters on the other side of the Galstyan house. The pipe is buried some 2 meters deep. In most likelihood it had been damaged. The escaping gas, having no other outlet, found its way into the Galstyan house through some cracks in the wall. This is the explanation given to us by the relatives.

Mr. Gagik Piliposyan, the Director of HayRusGazart’s Kotayk Division didn’t deny such an explanation for the explosions. “Some 70% of the pipes delivering gas run underground today. The entire pipeline system cannot be installed aboveground.” He noted that the village of Solak’s gas delivery system was installed some 20-30 years ago so the pipes are old but that they make periodic inspection checks. “An inspection team checked the area ten days before the explosion and found nothing wrong. There was no explosion then but later there was. Who do you think I am, Nostradamus?” concluded the Director and chalked-up the accidents to a series of different circumstances.

Village Mayor Badal Sargsyan couldn’t remember anything about the inspections allegedly made by the gas company but couldn’t rule out their possibility entirely. “We didn’t hear of such a thing but surely the residents of that neighborhood must have known, right?” Mayor Sargsyan personally went to the gas company’s local branch after the second explosion. He states that, “Look, I told them, there are people laid-up in bad shape. At least help out financially. They said nothing doing, take them to the hospital and we’ll cover any expenses that are incurred.”

The Mayor personally took the four injured individuals to the hospital. Sadly, Arevahat Galstyan passed away there the following day. The main reason given for her death as that her cardio-pulmonary system had failed and that she had sustained serious burns to her forearms, wrists and legs. Her daughter believes that the woman would have lived another few years had these two blows not be consecutive in nature. This is also the opinion of the doctors.

While we already knew that the immediate cause of this woman’s death wasn’t the burns received from the gas explosion, Director Pilibosyan of HayRusGazart, in an apparent move to defend his actions, stated to us that, “The woman was already at death’s door and that her relatives had gathered at her bedside to pay their last respects.” The Mayor countered by saying, “How could they say such a thing when the woman was convalescing in bed, alive and alert. I went and spoke to her and she appeared to be fine. Her conditioned worsened after the second explosion.”

As a result of the gas explosion that occurred at 7-7:30 on the morning on February 19th the following individuals sustained skin burns of various degrees: Arevahat Galstyan; her daughter, Araksya Galstyan; her sister, Mayranush Galstyan and grandson, Hovhannes Bozinyan. The explosion destroyed all their furniture and clothing. While preliminary investigations are still underway, the contention exists that the cause of the blast was the damaged gas pipeline. What has angered HayRusGazart’s Kotayk Local Director the most in the entire affair are the ‘highly exaggerated compensation demands’ made by the relatives of Arevahat Galstyan. He says that, “Their appraisals of the house and other destroyed items are overstated.” For this reason Director Pilibosyan has decided to wait for the court’s decision before making any compensatory payments.

 Kotayk