BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 10. Kazakhstan is piloting the digital fire prevention system Tumar 112 in its Abai Region as part of efforts to strengthen fire safety in residential areas, the press service of the country’s government reported.
According to the publication, the mobile application allows authorities to keep electronic records of residential inspections, document fire hazards using photographs and geolocation data, and build a unified database. Minister of Emergency Situations Murat Mukhanov presented the system at a government meeting.
The collected information is expected to help identify homes most vulnerable to fires, track the elimination of detected violations and provide emergency services with up-to-date information when responding to fire reports. Following the pilot project in Abai Region, the system is planned for further rollout across the country, the report says.
Alongside digital prevention measures, Kazakhstan is expanding its firefighting infrastructure and strengthening the resources of civil protection services. Nineteen fire stations have been built across the country this year, including seven universal facilities designed to accommodate both firefighting and medical services.
The country is also purchasing more than 160 fire engines, around 1,500 pieces of equipment and over 2,000 sets of protective clothing. Under the “Auyl Qutqarushylary” (Village Rescuers) programme, 312 firefighting points are currently operating and providing protection to 978 settlements.
The government is also increasing staffing levels in emergency response units, with 592 additional positions approved to strengthen their personnel capacity and readiness to respond to emergencies. During the heating season, particular attention is being paid to residential fire safety.
More than 93,000 homes belonging to socially vulnerable groups are included in the country's targeted fire prevention programme. Since August, authorities have cleaned 6,100 chimneys, repaired 3,100 stoves and 3,400 electrical systems, and installed more than 13,000 fire detectors.
A campaign titled “Check Your Parents' Home” has also been launched to identify and eliminate fire hazards in the homes of elderly people.
In North Kazakhstan Region, local authorities allocated 1.4 billion tenge ($3.1 million) from the regional budget in 2025 to strengthen the material and technical resources of civil protection services, with another 1.5 billion tenge ($3.4 million) earmarked for 2026. The funding has been used to purchase fire engines, all-terrain vehicles, boats, hovercraft, communication equipment, drones and thermal imaging cameras.
Under the Village Rescuers programme, eight firefighting points were established in the region in 2025 and another 14 opened this year. Seventeen additional points are planned by the end of 2026, which is expected to extend fire protection to 135 villages with a combined population of around 45,000.
The measures have helped reduce the number of fires in the region's residential sector by more than half. Since the start of the current heating season, 23 fires have been recorded, compared with 51 during the same period last year, with no deaths or injuries reported.
At the national level, the 2025-2026 heating season saw a 16% decrease in the number of fires compared with the previous season. The number of fatalities fell by 6.4%, while injuries declined by 26%.
More than 55% of fires during the heating season occur in residential buildings, primarily private houses. The main causes include violations of electrical appliance operating rules (39.2%), improper use of stove heating (29.6%) and careless handling of fire (11.5%).
