The Specialised Inter-district Administrative Court of the Almaty Region considered a case concerning the inaction of the fire service in the Yeltai Rural District.
According to the press service of the Supreme Court, in May 2023, a resident of the village of Yeltai called the fire station and reported a grass fire on the land adjacent to his home. The firefighters ignored the call.
A representative of the local administration arrived at the fire and, together with the villagers, attempted to put it out using makeshift means. The fire service arrived to extinguish the blaze only after the fire had already reached the plaintiff's house.
As a result of the damage to his home, the villager suffered material losses amounting to 11.9 million tenge. He filed a lawsuit demanding that the inaction of the administration of the Yeltai Rural District and the firefighting service be declared illegal, and that he be compensated for the material damage incurred.
The court ruled that the inaction of the fire service was illegal and ordered the agency to pay the plaintiff 11.9 million tenge in compensation.
It is noted that the firefighting service tried to appeal the court's decision, but the Almaty Regional Court deemed the decision of the court of first instance to be justified.
Recall that in June last year, a major fire occurred in the forests of the Abai region, which resulted in the deaths of 14 employees of the "Semey Ormany" forest nature reserve. The fire destroyed over 63,000 hectares of unique relict pine forest. The damage exceeded 160 billion tenge.
Later, two officials who held leadership positions in the reserve and the Novoshulbinsky branch received 7-year prison sentences each.
In July of this year, it was reported that the director of the "Semey Ormany" reserve branch was detained in the Abai region. He is suspected of stealing timber. In addition to him, law enforcement officers detained more than 20 people.
In early November, for the fire in "Semey Ormany", the convicted acting general director of "Kazavialesookhrana", Talgar Aliev, was sentenced. The court ordered him to pay the Ministry of Ecology the amount of damage from the fire, totalling 161.5 billion tenge. He also has to pay a state fee of 4.8 billion tenge.