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Published in: Helsingin Sanomat, 3rd of January, 2004 |
- FIRE DESTROYED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF TIRES - FIRE TRUCKS HAD TO GET WATER FROM FAR AWAY
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- During the Friday, tens of thousands of old tires were burning in Keimola, Vantaa. The fire that is quite rare in Finland and difficult to extinguish, was probably started around 17:35, when the fire department was dispatched to the stockyard of old tires in Keimola. Seven emergency units were send to the area from Helsinki and nearby areas. The fire however was already spread out in the tire walls, that the fire department was unable to extinguish the fire. The only job for the fire department was to try to make the burnings spots a bit cooler, so that they could be extinguish by a foam. There wasn't any point of trying to use the foam to the flames that were reaching the sky. The tower of the old motor-racing track of Keimola the fire department was able to save and it suffered only smoke damage. - The smoke rose to the sky and didn't hamper the efforts to extinguish the fire. However, the bad smelling smoke did drift to the northern area of Helsinki and was even felt during the morning. The police isolated the area from a wide area, due to the toxic smoke, but the traffic could continue as usual in the nearby freeway of Tampere. The burning area could be well seen from the freeway and the flames were also seen from the control tower of Helsinki-Vantaa airport. The fire will be difficult to extinguish, because the Finnish firemen don't have any experience about these kind of fires. This is like an oil container would be burning. Similar fires has been in Canada and Denmark and it took several days for them to put out the fire, says the chief of fire department from Vantaa. You need to get large amounts of foam to the burning spots and there also needs to be a sufficient amount of equipment around. If this is not the case, the foam will just rise to sky, aided by the hot air and smoke. Old tires has been stored near the old motor-racing track of Keimola, to be crushed and used again. There were nearly a thousand tons of tires around, which is about 150 000 pieces of them. There wasn't enough water near the stockyard and the fire department needed to get water from over a kilometer away. - The stockyard has a fence going around it, but constantly there's people vandalizing the fence. We repaired the fences during the last summer, but immediately after few weeks, they had new holes said the director of the stockyard. Also tire heaps have been broken and tires taken outside of the stockyard area. - The fire was extinguished all through the night and the fire department tried also to isolate the fire, with a bulldozer. Tires were also spread out to a smaller heaps, but the real burning spots were left alone. The tire heaps in the area, vary from two meter to three meter in height, but the gas clouds were rising to a nearly twenty meters, sometimes to even higher. - We cannot determine the cause of fire yet, because nobody hasn't been able to investigate the burning area. Our staff left the area around 16:00 and at that time, there were no signs of any fire in the area, said the director of the stockyard. |
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Published in: Helsingin Sanomat, 4h of January, 2004 |
- THE FIRE BURNED ALL THROUGH THE DAY - THE SMELL OF THE FIRE WAS FELT IN THE AIRPORT AND IN TIKKURILA
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- The fire in the old motor-racing track of Keimola, produced a lot of smoke during the night between Friday and Saturday. The smoke rose to the sky, forming a cloud that reached to a nearly hundred meters in height. During the Saturday morning, the wind was transporting the smoke to the airport and to Tikkurila, but the smoke and the different combinations in it, were diluted during the journey and didn't cause any harm to the citizen. Even during the Saturday, the emergency center, received phone calls from citizen reporting smoke and the fire. The fire started in Keimola, in the tire stockyard and no staff was around at that time. - During the Saturday morning, the tires were still burning in an area of half hectare. The stockyard contained tens of different burning spots, that were furiously burning of were just embers. The fire men were just watching the situation and warming up in the heat. Using water to extinguish the fire might cause more damage than good. We don't know exactly where the water and the debris would travel from here and that's why we will let the tires to burn, said the fire chief from the Keski-Uusimaa fire department. - During the afternoon, sand and soil was transported to the fire area and their intention was to isolate the burning area and to smother the areas that were still smoldering. This method is really slow, but it looks very effective. Sand and soil will be brought to the area through the night and we will continue the work again in Sunday. We didn't want to use foam to extinguish the fire, for the same reason as we didn't use water. After all, the foam also contains liquid, said the fire chief. - There were nearly 150 000 tires in the stockyard, waiting to be processed. They would have been used to roads and noise barriers. According to the director of the stockyard, the financial damage comes mainly from cleaning and clearance costs. This time of the year, is the quietest when it comes to changing tires. Thankfully the busy autumn is already behind us. The fire will stop our business for at least few days. - Police is investigating the fire and knowingly, there was no electricity wires or equipment around. The fire couldn't have started on it's own. |
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Published in: Helsingin Sanomat, 8h of January, 2004 |
- THE FIRE IN KEIMOLA IS PROBABLY A WORK BY ARSONIST |
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- The fire that started in Keimola last Friday evening, is most likely a job by arsonist. According the the Vantaa police, the tires need such a heat to burn, that arson is the only option how the fire could have started. Police is looking for a information about three juveniles that were seen to leave the area, shortly before the first calls from the fire came in. Two from the three people are without a doubt males, but the third one, a very short person could have been a female. |
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Published in: Helsingin Sanomat, 10h of January, 2004 |
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POLICE IS QUESTIONING THREE JUVENILES - THE TIRES ARE STILL GLOWING UNDER THE SAND |
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- Police is questioning three juveniles during the weekend, that are suspected of setting up the fire in the area of old motor-racing track of Keimola. The three people came voluntarily to the police station, although the police had been trying to reach them earlier. The juveniles are 17 to 20 years old and one of them is a female and the rest of them are males. According to the preliminary hearing, they said that they had been handling fire works in the stockyard area. - The juveniles are still in our custody and we still want to check out that did they have something flammable with them or something else that might be easily ignited. We don't believe that the fire could have started from fire works said the inspector from Vantaa police station. - The fire destroyed a week ago some 50 000 used tires in a stockyard. They were meant to be crushed and used again for roads and noise barriers. The fire was seen and smell in Vantaa and in northern Helsinki last weekend. Finally the fire was extinguished by sand, because using water could have caused a damage to the nature. The burning spots below the sand were still very hot during the Friday and we let them to get cooler. During the next week we will be discussing with the environment officials, that what should be done with the soil and the burned rubber said the project chief. - The heat has burned the tires to the asphalt and some of the asphalt has also disappeared as a smoke to the sky. The tires and the contaminated soil will be transported to somewhere else, said the project chief. About 600 tons of tires were destroyed and about 200 tons saved from the fire. The tires that were saved, are crushed and processed during the weekend. Keimola isn't receiving any tires at least during this month, but the stockyard will have a staff there. |
NOTE: I never found the time to visit the old motor-racing track of Keimola and now it seems that due to this stupidity from the part of those three juveniles, it's a bit too late. Other articles are informing that the area is now guarded around the clock by a security firm. Well, there wasn't much too see in the first place besides that old tower, but still I think it would have been nice to see it with my own eyes.
