‘First to help others’ — Kyiv firefighter battles blaze that gutted his own family's apartment
When firefighter Serhii Vlasenko rushed to an overnight Russian strike site in Kyiv on Nov. 14, he found his own apartment in flames, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
Russia launched 430 drones and 19 missiles at Ukraine that night, with Kyiv as the main target. Six people were killed and 35 injured in the capital as a result of the attack.
Vlasenko, 35, has served in Ukraine's Emergency Service for 15 years and was on duty as a shift supervisor at the time of the attack.
A Russian drone struck the apartment where Vlasenko lived with his mother, wife, and two children — a 5-year-old son and an 8-month-old daughter. All four were at home when the air-raid siren sounded, but "they reacted to it, which saved their lives," Klymenko said.
"When the rescuers arrived at the scene, Serhii saw that his own apartment was on fire," the minister said. "He continued his work, extinguishing the flames that engulfed his home and dismantling the damaged structures to reach his children's room."
The apartment was completely destroyed in the strike. The Vlasenko family lost their home but has already received keys to a service apartment, according to Klymenko.
"Stories like this remind us that rescuers are not just a service," Klymenko said. "They are people who have children, parents, homes. And even when their own homes fall victim to war, they are still the first to go and help others."
The Russian attack damaged numerous residential buildings across seven districts of the Ukrainian capital. In the Shevchenkivskyi district, debris from an Iskander-M ballistic missile also struck and damaged the Azerbaijani Embassy.
Search and rescue efforts are still underway in several locations as of the evening of Nov. 14, with emergency crews working to clear debris from affected buildings.
