The memories of firefighter Spodras Kurmiņas about extinguishing the fire that occurred on September 17, 1974 in the basement of the 5-story "khrushchevka" building in Pārdaugava, Grivas massif:
"Step by step, we climb down into the basement. After just a few steps, you can't see anything ahead. The smoke is so dense that even the light of a strong flashlight cannot break through. Slowly, holding on to the basement wall, we move deeper and deeper into the basement. The heat increases with each step. It's getting harder and harder to breathe in a mask. The inhaled air is so hot that it burns the end of the throat. Inhalation becomes faster - the lung machine started working. I tried to breathe easily and evenly, but it didn't help. It seemed that the oxygen was about to run out.
The face was also heated under the protective mask. Sensation as if invisible hammers were hitting the temples.
The increasing heat forced to move further on all fours. For a moment, I wanted to run back, tear off the mask from my face to breathe even one breath of fresh air... I felt that my friends who were running behind me were not doing any easier. The heat became so intolerable that we were forced to crawl forward while lying down. There were moments when it seemed: well, no more strength will get me forward.
But when I felt my comrades behind me, I regained my strength. And there, through the thick smoke and heat, you could already see a reddish glow and loud crackling.
Strong jets of water shot into the fire. A mass of billowing steam swirled around us. You could feel it in every crevice of the clothing
After intensive work, we contained the fire and then extinguished it. Exhausted, wet from sweat and pouring water, we slipped out of the basement. The appearance was terrible, covered in soot, we looked like devils. Even the protective helmets had peeling paint and cracks appeared in the rubber face masks of the breathing apparatus.
We tore off our face masks, hungrily inhaled the clean, cool autumn air. It took us a while to recover.
During this duty, we had to go to put out another fire. We returned to our team in the middle of the night. While we put the cars and ourselves in order, a new day began to dawn".