It Was Good We Survived: Owner of Collapsed House in Hrazdan Shares Details

83-year-old Arshak Sahakyan finds it difficult to recount what happened, still overcoming the stress. He was sitting with his wife when he heard an explosion, causing the windows and walls of their home to crumble immediately.

“For a moment, there was a flash; I threw a blanket over it so that it wouldn’t catch fire,” Arshak Sahakyan told Tert.am.

Arshak, along with his 82-year-old wife, has lived in this apartment. After the explosion, an ambulance arrived, and fortunately, the couple did not sustain any injuries.

“The good thing was that we survived, there were no injuries. Imagine if my arm had been broken! I looked around the house and thought, something has happened; it’s true it’s not a big fortune, but my heart ached,” Arshak Sahakyan recounted.

For the past two years, Arshak has had health issues, often being bedridden. Today, he has been on his feet for a few hours, trying to restore order to the house, though he doesn’t know how to start. Following the explosion, the apartment has been cut off from electricity and gas supply.

“They have taken measures and promised to repair the broken windows first and then resolve the electricity issue so they can heat one room because grandpa has health problems and doesn’t want to leave the house. They are waiting for forensic experts to come and determine the cause of the explosion,” said Arshak’s daughter, Nelli Hovhannisyan.

The explosion is most likely due to natural gas, but the fact still needs to be investigated and studied.

“We took grandma to a warm place until this issue is solved so that she can warm up, but grandpa refuses to temporarily leave the house; even if you take him with a tractor, he won’t go,” Nelli Hovhannisyan added.

The building was constructed during the Soviet era. Such incidents have never occurred before, and only this house was damaged by the explosion. The Hrazdan municipality has stated that they will take measures to mitigate the damages.