TALLINN — Two separate house fires claimed two lives in Võru and Harjumaa on Thursday night.

The Southern Estonia emergency call center received a call at 12:41 a.m. about a house fire on Mäe street in the small town of Võru. The fire was raging in a second-floor room, where the corpse of a man was found after a few-minute search.

A neighbor managed to help an older woman to escape from the burning house before the firefighters arrived.

The blaze was quelled at 1:41 a.m. after firefighting teams from Võru and Vastseliina were sent. The flames did not reach further from the second-floor room and the rest of the house was not damaged.

A working fire alarm was found in the first floor kitchen but was placed incorrectly on top of the fridge.

Not long thereafter a second fire took place on the other side of the country.

At 2.36 a.m. a fire was reported in the Vanamõisa village in Harju County where a two-floor stone house was on fire. When firefighters arrived, the entire structure was already alight.

One person was rescued and was taken to the hospital, but one man died in the fire. Three other people managed to escape the building before the rescue team arrived after hearing the smoke alarm ringing.

Police are investigating the cause of both fires.

A deadly trend?

Already nine people have lost their lives due fire within seven days of the new year. However, the Estonian Rescue board recently released notification saying that the fire-caused deaths have reached the lowest level since Estonia became independent.

There were 63 fire-related deaths last year, the smallest in Estonia’s recent history and less 26 less than in 2008. In 2007 the fire claimed 132 people and in 2006 it was 164.

Reimo Raja, press spokesman of the Estonian Rescue Board said that nine deaths due fire is a large number but that the majority of deaths caused by fire typically occur in December and January.

“The main reasons are careless smoking, being careless with open fire, and over-heating in the winter,” Raja told Baltic Reports.