A Million Tricks to Save Millions

The cottage on Naimanbaev Street, adjacent to the Teremok bath complex, was rented by a private hospital for palliative care and nursing care as an office for several years. The tenants converted the permanent garage into a storage facility.

- When they told me about the fire, I rushed there immediately. The roof of the garage was already ablaze. I had to see how, before my eyes, everything that we had purchased for bedridden patients with such difficulty turned into piles of charred garbage, flooded with water (see “Teremok caught fire”, “Vremya” from 5.5.2023 ), - the chief physician of the hospital Rustembek Apsalikov sighs heavily. - A month later, experts determined the total amount of damage caused by the fire - 22 million 546 thousand tenge. The destroyed property of our hospital was estimated at 20 million 500 thousand. Another two million tenge is the amount of damage caused to the owners of the burned-out garage. When the owners of “Teremok” tried to shift the blame to us, stating that they did not heat the bathhouse that day, it became clear that it would not be easy to get compensation for the damage from them. But we couldn’t even imagine what kind of hell awaited us!

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The owners of Teremok failed miserably in their attempt to shift the blame onto the victims. A forensic fire-technical examination, which was ordered as part of a criminal case on the fact of the fire, showed that the fire occurred on the territory of the bath complex.

- The key witness could have been the stoker, but he disappeared. Either he was being hidden, or he was hiding himself, - the hospital's head doctor suggests. - It took two months to find him. During the interrogation, he did not try to shield his employers, stating that he was heating the bathhouse on the day and at the time when the fire occurred. And since there were no flame arresters on the chimneys of the bathhouse complex, we can assume that the spark flew onto a pile of garbage that was stored near the fence, right at the fire line with the neighboring site! That's where the fire started. We often saw sheaves of sparks flying from the pipes. By the way, in previous years they had fires in the bathhouse complex, but they did not have such serious consequences.

The investigation of a trivial criminal case on the fact of a fire dragged on for... one year and two months! At the same time, the security officers did not seize the bath complex, which the owners took advantage of by selling "Teremok" profitably.

Ultimately, on June 24, 2024, the criminal case was dismissed due to the absence of elements of a crime under Part 2 of Article 292 of the Criminal Code (“violation of fire safety requirements that resulted in the death of a person or other serious consequences through negligence”). However, the fire safety officers allocated the materials to administrative proceedings under Part 3 of Article 410, which provides for punishment for violation or failure to comply with fire safety requirements that resulted in a fire that caused harm to human health or significant damage, in the absence of elements of a criminal offense.

As a result, Aitpana IBRAYEVA, who owned the Teremok bath complex at the time of the fire, was brought to administrative responsibility and fined 73,840 tenge.

- Even though the fine was very small, it was a victory for us! Because now we could sue Ibraeva for damages, - Rustembek Kazbekovich shares. - But this was not part of the plans of the former owners of Teremok, who apparently wanted to avoid responsibility. It would have been ideal for them if the investigation had recognized that the fire was caused by arson by unidentified persons. It is because of them that the investigation of the criminal case has been delayed for over a year. No matter what expert opinion comes in, they file a complaint with the prosecutor's office. The inquiry agency issues a ruling - another complaint to the prosecutor's office. And so it is every time. Naturally, they have repeatedly tried in every possible way to appeal the administrative liability. But to no avail.

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On November 29, 2024, the specialized court for administrative offenses dismissed Ibrayeva’s complaint to overturn and declare the ruling on the administrative offense illegal.

The appeals board recently upheld the ruling.

- Now there is a trial on our claim for recovery of damages caused by a fire from Aitpanu Ibrayeva, - shares Rustembek Apsalikov. - Often businessmen register property in the name of their retired parents. Apparently, this is the case. The defendant is 63 years old. In fact, her sons managed the bath complex. One of them was even listed as responsible for fire safety! When the family got rid of "Teremok", there were concerns that the court would rule that Ibrayeva would compensate for the multi-million damage from her pension. When the trial began, just in case, we went out with a motion to seize the property of IP "Ibrayeva". It turned out that 11 apartments in new buildings were listed in his name!

When it became clear that they couldn't avoid paying for the damage, the businessmen changed their tactics. Now they decided to prove that the palliative care and nursing hospital had no damage from the fire at all!

- That's what they said in court: all this property couldn't have fit in the garage! Or maybe it never existed. And even if something did exist, it's not a fact that it hadn't been written off by that time! At Ibraeva's request, the court ordered an economic examination. I don't even know how it will be conducted. Immediately after the fire, all the necessary forensic examinations were conducted as part of the criminal case. Everything was photographed, recorded, and counted. At that time, it didn't even occur to us that the damaged wheelchairs, walkers, diapers, and other things needed to be stored for another examination. Who knew that it would drag on for two years? - Apsalikov is perplexed.

He also says that the hospital replaced the burned inventory at its own expense, because you can’t tell seriously ill, bedridden old people that they will have to do without the most basic necessities until those responsible for the fire compensate for the damage. Moreover, this moment may never come, because people who are absolutely sure of their own impunity have a million tricks to avoid responsibility…

Milana GUZEEVA, photo by the author, Semey