Vilnius residents seek removal of shelters from apartment buildings

Residents of apartment buildings in Vilnius have asked the municipality to remove civil protection shelters from their basements because they do not want to keep them unlocked or admit people from outside their buildings, LRT reported.

Residents of one apartment building said the basement should primarily serve as shelter for people living in that building. They also claimed the municipality had miscalculated the shelter’s capacity by including private storage units where residents keep their belongings, meaning the space could not accommodate as many people as the municipality had estimated.

After an air-raid alert was announced because of a drone and some people could not enter shelters because they were locked, officials said shelters must always remain accessible. However, the building’s homeowners’ association said it could not leave the entrances unlocked because that would increase the risk of theft and property damage. It also said it was not possible to have someone guard the shelter.

In total, residents of 32 apartment buildings in the capital contacted the municipality asking for the shelters in their buildings to be removed. Although authorities have repeatedly warned that there are not enough shelters, the requests were approved because the municipality must do so when more than half of a building’s residents ask for it.

“We live in a legal system: an apartment building and its residents have shared property and, in accordance with the law, can request that it be removed or assigned one status or another,” said Žygimantas Solovjovas, head of the Civil Protection Division at the Vilnius municipality.

Solovjovas said the reasons given by residents were similar, including that they did not want to take responsibility for unlocking the shelters and admitting other people.

Municipalities are discussing the installation of remotely operated telephone entry systems in shelters with businesses. This would allow the shelters to be unlocked remotely when necessary.

“We also have questions: if there is no electricity or other necessary conditions, how would it work? In addition, telephone entry systems can only be used for shelters with direct access. If the shelter is inside a building, such as a cultural centre, school or kindergarten, the problem is not solved,” said Audrius Klišonis, president of the Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania.

Klišonis said that people seeking to remove shelters from their buildings might not be near their homes when an air-raid alert is issued. He said residents needed to understand that they might find themselves in a situation where people elsewhere would not want to let them in.

Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas said residents should first understand that shelters were intended for their own safety. He added that municipalities were responsible for educating people about civil protection and explaining that the measures were being taken for residents’ safety.

The Vilnius municipality said it had also received about 30 requests from people who wanted shelters to be established in their buildings or premises. Solovjovas said businesses, including business centres, had become particularly active in making such requests.

This year, the Interior Ministry allocated more than 14 million euros to upgrade shelters. The Association of Local Authorities said beds, sleeping bags, generators and water tanks were currently being purchased for them.