Kond, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

Another of my long-term personal projects in addition to national minorities such as the Yezidi and children in residential care in Armenia has been the old central Yerevan district of Kond. On Sunday, for example, I took a visiting British-Armenian film maker to the area, so it was an unfortunate coincidence that A1 Plus today reported that a fire had started in a house and was spreading.

At present 6 houses in the district Kond are on fire. 6 fire brigades have arrived on the scene. But they haven’t been able to put out the fire so far.

[…]

The residents are trying to put out the fire by pouring water from buckets. According to them, the fire started in one of the houses because of the gas flowing and spread at a terrible speed. But the representative of gas service noted that there isn’t natural gas there and gas couldn’t be the main cause of fire.

Some of the residents assume that the fire was caused by electricity.

However, because I had strained a muscle in my back after foolishly doing too much (ie read some) exercise yesterday, I didn’t grab my camera and get down to Kond until Nessuna at di cavoli e di re rang me, leaving me no real choice but to do what I should have done hours earlier anyway. Thankfully for the 3,000 residents of homes in Kond, the fire had been extinguished by the time I got there.

However, Harmick over at Blogrel says that the way in which different media outlets covered the story raises a few questions.

A fire occured in the Kond suburb of Yerevan today. According to official reports 5 houses are completely destroyed, and 2 have their roof destroyed. The state tv H1, showed pictures of professional firemen putting out the fire, whilst Yerkir Media’s new online news service shows a completely different story:

Residents putting out the fire themselves with fire hoses, and half way through, the water running out. There was inadequate pressure in the fire hydrant,and no water supply in the suburb at the time. Pictures show people filling buckets with water, and apparently it took the one fire engine a very long time to arrive.

It makes me wonder, what if something worse happend in Yerevan? If there was not even water to put out a residential fire, what on earth would happen if anything worse occured. It is truly shocking that residents were having to struggle with no water whilst watching their houses burn. It is very, very sad.

Harmick has posted a link to the Yerkir Media coverage of the fire in which he says you can see the water run out, but to be fair to the fire service, Kond is not the most accessible of places. To be honest, it’s impossible to get a fire engine anywhere close, and when I was there earlier I was struck by the huge distance the fire hoses had to be laid out in order to get to the fire.

My main concern is that Kond should be in a much better shape than it is, and after this fire I hope that the oligarchs and government-connected “property developers” don’t get any ideas of how to force residents out. Kond is the last remaining part of the center of Yerevan that can be “developed,” and lighting a few fires in lieu of proper financial compensation might now seem a very effective method.

Anyway, after the violation of the law, constitution and human rights of residents of other old parts of central Yerevan, it’s only a matter of time. Instead of re-developing the area in a way that could pay huge dividends for Armenia’s fledgling post-independence tourism industry, I have always feared the worst about Kond. Greed will win over urban planning, and corruption will take precedence over protecting the rights of citizens.

Anyway, some photos of one of the most historical remaining parts of old Yerevan can be found here.

Kond, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006