At least a hundred people have died in fires this year

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Already at least a hundred Finns have lost their lives in fires this year, and the total number of fire victims is feared to reach 110-115 by the end of 2006.
      The corresponding figure for the whole of 2005 was 81. Last weekend alone, five people perished in fires: a family of four in Anjalankoski and a single man in Loviisa.
     
The Finnish National Rescue Association (SPEK) sees the sharp rise in fire-related deaths from last year as an extremely worrying development. Most of the victims have been either middle-aged men or elderly people.
      "In recent years we have come to believe that nearly every home in Finland would have a fire alarm, and that this would have prevented fire-related deaths. Now it seems that even if the alarms exist they are not necessarily kept in working order", explains SPEK information officer Helena Grönstrand.
     
According to SPEK, most fire deaths arise from the fact that people have not understood the gravity of the situation or have been unable to leave the premises after detecting the hazard.
      Experts believe that the most efficient way to prevent deaths among risk groups, such as the elderly, would be to equip their homes with automatic sprinklers.
     
"The number of fire victims cannot possibly stay below a hundred this year, given that the Christmas season is still ahead of us, with all its candles combined with the liberal use of alcohol", predicts SPEK director Matti Orrainen.
      Last weekend's devastating holiday home fire in Anjalankoski, which killed a family of four, is suspected to have started from candles left to burn on a glassed-in porch. The ill-fated family from Vantaa consisted of a mother (born 1968), a father (born 1969), and two young sons (born 2004 and 2006).
     
Investigators have found no signs of any kind of fire alarm in the burnt-out remains of the house.
      Where the bodies were found inside the building also supports the notion that the victims were not alerted to the fire by the sound of an alarm, before they were asphyxiated by carbon monoxide and other combustion gases.


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