A child without gas: why do large families remain without heat in the cold
In the village of Zheludevo, Shilovsky district, Ryazan region, four people died in a fire in mid-February: parents and two children. The family has many children — three more children studied in other regions. This status did not help to cope with the troubles of life: back in March 2025, the gas in the house was turned off, and the premises had to be heated with electricity and bottled gas. That's what started the fire. Unfortunately, the story of utility outages for large families is not uncommon: people complain about it all over the country. Heating cannot be turned off, but if electricity or gas act as it, in fact, it is not prohibited by law. State Duma deputies see a serious gap in this. Izvestia dealt with the problem.
Why did large families die near Ryazan
The fire in Zheludevo occurred on the night of February 12: a private house broke out, killing spouses Irina and Sergey Kondrashov, as well as their twin children Alexei and Alyona, who were six years old. The family had many children: three more children no longer lived with their parents.
It turned out that the gas was turned off to a large family for debts. The house was heated with a heat gun and bottled gas. The media, citing the administration, called the family "not very prosperous," which the locals, however, denied.
Daria, the niece of the deceased Irina, told Izvestia that the family sometimes had financial and personal problems, but in general their lives differed little from the lives of their neighbors, there was "nothing terrible." However, due to difficulties with money, the gas was turned off in March 2025.
— Sergey responded by connecting to the gas on his own, and in December the pipe was completely cut off. Then Sergey connected the gas cylinders. There was a gas leak, and then a fire," Daria said.
According to her, the family tried to solve the problems: on January 30, the fine imposed by the gas workers was fully repaid. Daria provided Izvestia with a photo of a receipt for payment of 127 thousand rubles. After that, they applied to the gas service for the possibility of an official connection to the gas, but they did not issue a certificate of repayment of the debt. The family did not have time to reconnect: a fire broke out late in the evening on February 11.
Daria said that now the relatives of the victims are being helped by the head of the education department of the Shilovsky district, Nadezhda Chiyoneva, and the deputy head of the district administration, Lyudmila Agafonova. According to Daria, "they saved many families in similar situations": they negotiated with the gas service or looked for sponsors who could pay the debt to the families.
"But they didn't know about Irina and Sergey's family, because the gas service hadn't notified the district administration about the gas outage,— Daria said. — Perhaps the officials of Zheludevo were aware of the situation, I am not aware of this.
The relatives of the victims also do not know whether the family used benefits to pay for housing and communal services for large families.
The Commissioner for Children's Rights of the Ryazan Region, Angelika Evdokimova, told Izvestia that this family had not previously come to her attention. According to her, in case of complaints about such situations, the commissioner's office tries to help, including contacting local governments and suppliers to resolve the issue in the interests of families with children.
In response to a request from Izvestia about the tragedy in Zheludevo, Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Ryazan limited its condolences to the relatives of the victims, explaining that they could not comment until the end of the investigation.
The criminal case was initiated under part 3 of Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — causing death by negligence to two or more persons. There is no information about suspects or detainees yet.
Daria, in turn, sent an appeal to the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin. In it, she points out, in particular, that the gas workers "did not give a certificate of debt repayment and permission to reconnect for a long time." According to her, the gas cylinders had to be connected during severe cold weather, because it was not possible to heat the house with electrical appliances.
Izvestia also sent a request to the administration of the Shilovsky district.
Where else do similar problems occur
A somewhat similar tragedy occurred on December 14, 2025 in Ulan-Ude. In the Cheryomushki SNT, two adults and a child were poisoned by carbon monoxide. Six more children survived, but were orphaned. It turned out that the house was heated by an electric boiler, but on December 12, the electricity was turned off due to debts. To warm up the house, the parents put a diesel generator in an unventilated room.
In a criminal case, the head of the city department of the territorial division of Energosbyt of Buryatia was detained. She was charged under part 2 of Article 215.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — termination of the supply of electrical energy, resulting in the death of a person by negligence. The investigators admitted that the house's electricity supply was the only way to heat it.
According to the same article, they can be convicted if the shutdown of gas or water also led to the death of people.
And without tragic consequences, there are quite a lot of similar stories of gas or electricity shutdowns that families use to heat their rooms. Right now, Svetlana, a mother with many children, who lives in a private house at Kurdyum station in the Saratov region, finds herself in a similar situation. She has three children, and a fourth is expected in the spring, but the housing was turned off due to gas debts, and it is heated with electric heaters.
— Four heaters are constantly running in different rooms, the cost of light per month is from 5 to 10 thousand rubles per month, — Svetlana told Izvestia. — It's cold at home, the kitchen is like outside, the bathroom is not heated, the floors are icy everywhere.
She explained that the debt for gas was closed back in the fall, but when checking after that, the gas service found two leaks and stated that the boiler placement did not comply with existing standards.
— We were told that the gas would be connected, but we arrived, and not only did we find two leaks, they also said that we needed to move the boiler. And this is at our expense, and it is very expensive — about 100 thousand rubles will have to be spent, — says Svetlana.
According to her, a large family is required to cope with this burden on their own, but they do not have the means to do so, and they do not dare to take up work in the winter.
Can the gas be turned off for large families
Alexey Kurinny, a member of the State Duma commission on ensuring the housing rights of citizens, explained to Izvestia that, in accordance with Russian Government Decree No. 354, heating should not be turned off.
"But there is no direct prohibition in this decree on turning off gas or electricity that can be used for heating purposes," the deputy noted. — I introduced a bill that prohibited such actions at the level of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, but it was rejected.
He added that he is aware of cases of disconnection of both gas and electricity for debts. The deputy requested information from the government of the Russian Federation on the number of households disconnected from gas, where this resource is used for heating purposes.
Gazprom Mezhregiongaz LLC told Izvestia that the subscriber services of regional gas companies carry out targeted work with debtors "depending on the risky segment to which the subscriber belongs."
— As a general rule, installment payments for the public are provided for a period of no more than six months. In some cases, for socially vulnerable categories of citizens, at the request of the subscriber with the submission of supporting documents, a preferential installment plan may be established with an extension of its period up to 12 months, the company explained.
Turning off the gas is an extreme measure against "only malicious defaulters," when milder strategies of interaction, including forced debt collection through the courts, have proved useless. At the same time, Gazprom Mezhregiongaz stressed that there are no restrictions on the shutdown of the service in the gas supply rules approved by Resolution No. 549. Regardless of the season and the goals of gas consumption, it may be blocked.
At the same time, the overdue debt of the country's population is decreasing, Gazprom Mezhregiongaz noted. And the number of defaulters who have been subject to the suspension of gas supplies as a last resort is "negligible" — in 2025, this is 0.2% of the total number of subscribers.
How to help people with many children
Alexander Spivak, Chairman of the Council of the National Foundation for the Protection of Children from Abuse, noted that there were examples in the regions when families with children in a dysfunctional, crisis situation accumulated very large debts and utilities were turned off.
— Heads of social protection organizations, representatives of juvenile affairs commissions said that in these cases they tried to use their resources and take emergency measures: negotiate with public utilities to resume service, provide installments. In no case should a family be unable to cook food for children, so that children are left without heat," he said in an interview with Izvestia.
He stressed that it is necessary not only to urgently restore normal living conditions, but also to look for the causes of the crisis in order to prevent such situations in the future.
The expert of the Popular front, the deputy director — the head of the direction of legal regulation of housing and communal services of LLC "MATIK. Yakovlev and Partners Pavel Oleinikov explained that it is possible to turn off gas or electricity only if the notification procedure is strictly followed. If this procedure is violated, there is a reason to file complaints.
"The proactive position of social protection authorities is important to support large families: early identification of families in difficult situations, assistance in concluding installment agreements and other measures," he told Izvestia. — There is a basic all-Russian mechanism for subsidies for housing and communal services: They are provided when housing and communal services expenses exceed the maximum allowable share of the total family income. There is an order established by the Government of the Russian Federation. All this, if there is an active position of responsible structures, can make it possible to solve most difficult situations.
Nikolay Ivanov, the founder and chairman of the Fund for the Support of Large Families, said that in his practice there were many complaints about power outages for debts of 200-500 thousand rubles. So, at the end of January, the foundation was approached by a family that had taken out a mortgage on a large house. It is heated by electricity — and the sums for the service are huge. Debts are piling up, and the family is worried that the electricity will simply be turned off in the house.
"The position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on this matter is set out in the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 22 dated June 27, 2017," the expert explained to Izvestia. — It explicitly states that actions to suspend public services "must be proportionate to the violation committed, not go beyond the actions necessary to prevent it, not violate the rights and legitimate interests of others and not endanger the life and health of others."
According to Nikolai Ivanov, people with many children often come to him for help with the phrase "we don't know where else we can turn to."
— In such situations, we write official letters first to energy marketing companies, then to the regional children's rights commissioners. I am not aware of the existence of a well—developed mechanism for resolving such situations among guardianship authorities and local authorities," he said.
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