Tbilisi Mayor: it is the responsibility of gas providers to ensure safety

Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze has stated that it is not the responsibility of Tbilisi City Hall to check the safety of natural gas networks, responding to speculations that the 16 January deadly explosion in the Didi Digomi district of Tbilisi was the fault of the local authorities.

Providing gas and electricity and checking the safety of networks are the responsibilities of energy-provider companies”, Kaladze said.

Kaladze also responded to accusations that the nine-storey residential building where the explosion took place had not been fully certified by the City Hall Supervisory Agency for safety issues.

The company which constructed the building addressed our Supervisory Agency to check the building after its construction was completed. Several drawbacks were revealed by the agency, which were improved on”, Kaladze said.

The issue has nothing to do with gas provision, which happens before the construction company asks for permission to allow residents in. As I said the legislation places full responsibility for the provision and safety of gas or electricity structures onto the energy providers,” Kaladze said.

The explosion was so powerful that it damaged nearby buildings. Photo: N.Alavidze/Agenda.ge. 

The KazTransGas company says it began delivering gas to the residential building in December 2017.

The company says that on the day of the tragedy, two building residents phoned in complaining of the smell of gas, after which employees of the company were sent to check the building.

At the presence of the people who phoned us several areas where checked. However, the device which measures gas concentration in the air,  did not confirm gas leak.

The same day, at 20:33, we were informed by police that the explosion took place in the building, on the sixth floor, in flat number 49. Gas detectors were turned off in several flats of the building. The reason for the explosion is unknown to us and we are cooperating with the investigation to find them out”, KazTransGas has said in a statement.

Energy Ombudswoman Salome Vardiashvili says that the fact that the gas leak was not identified even after company employees arrived at the scene speaks to the “non-professionalism of company employees or [their] indifference.”

Four people were killed and eight received injuries due to the explosion.

KazTransGas says that over the past three years 86 people have been killed and 286 poisoned because of the faulty installation of gas heaters in Tbilisi.