Arson suspected in weekend church fires
Mormon Church destroyed in Tampere, Lappeenranta church slightly damaged
A church building of the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) in the Kaleva district of Tampere was gutted by a fire in the early hours of Saturday. The blaze was brought under control by eight AM.
A fire also occurred at the Lappee Church, an historic wooden Lutheran churh in Lappeenranta early on Sunday, causing fairly little damage before it was brought under control. Both fires are believed to have been deliberately set.
Three people were detained in connection with the investigation into the Tampere fire. No names were given out, but police said that the three were all born in the 1970s. The three were released after a few hours.Pauli Mäkelä, the head of the police investigation, said that police have not ruled anything out.
Two smaller suspicious fires were also reported in Tampere Friday night, and police are investigating possible linkages.
The alarm was made Saturday morning at 4:55. The fire apparently began in a storage area on the outer wall of the building, and spread from there to the sheet-metal-plated roof. The roof of the Mormon church was completely destroyed, and burning debris from the roof caused the flames to spread into the interior.
The rescue department says that there were no people inside. A number of apartment buildings are located near the church building. The closest is just ten metres away, but as the wind was blowing away from them, they were unharmed.
Firefighters urged local residents to keep their windows closed because of the thick smoke.
The effort to put out the Tampere fire caused temporary discolouration of tap water in the area, as fluctuations in pressure in the water mains caused sediment in the pipelines to become dislodged. Authorities assured residents that the sediment is not harmful.
Mormon Church officials estimate damage to the building at between three and four million euros, with reconstruction work expected to take at least two years.
The building was not insured, which is typical for the Mormon community.
"We have approximately 15,000 churches around the world. We can build an estimated two new churches a year with the money that we save in insurance premiums", says Heikki Aho, property manager for the Finnish LDS Church.
The fire caused disbelief in the neighbourhood. "This is very unfortunate. When we came home from a bar at about four in the morning, everything was normal. When we woke up in the morning to the sound of fire engines, the church was in flames", said two young men who live nearby.
Ari Lindberg, a member of the Mormon congregation, got a call from friends in the morning, who said that the church was on fire. Lindberg went to the scene immediately.
"The worst of this is the lost manual labour. The church was built in the 1960s largely with volunteer labour. Although the event is a rough one, life goes on", Lindberg says.
The fire at Lappee Church in Lappeenranta early Sunday in the centre of Lappeenranta caused considerably less damage. The flames reached the outer wooden structures of the building, which dates back to the late 18th century.
An automatic alarm system meant that firefighters were alerted quickly at about two in the morning, and the fire was extinguished in about half an hour.
When firefighters reached the blaze, smoke was coming from both outside and inside the building. Board cladding was torn away and smouldering embers inside the wooden wall were doused.
Nearby trash containers were also set alight. In spite of the fire, a ceremony was held at the church later in the day to inaugurate a new vicar for the Lappee congregation. The event proceeded normally, in spite of the prevailing stench of smoke.
Previously in HS International Edition:
Young man arrested on suspicion of arson of Kaivoksela Church in Vantaa (16.10.2006)
Three young people come forward and admit lighting Porvoo Cathedral fire (1.6.2006)
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 7.1.2008 - TODAY |
Arson suspected in weekend church fires
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