False fire alarm: swarm of mosquitoes mistaken for smoke

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Mosquitoes, especially in the north of Finland, are one of the less pleasant aspects of the Finnish summer, and their size, ferocity, and sheer numbers are a source of legendary tales delivered to scare foreigners.
      Usually they are only a fairly minor annoyance unless one is particularly allergic to their bites, but on Tuesday they actually caused a fire alarm.
      In the northern city of Kemi, a swarm of mosquitoes hovering over the roof of an apartment block was so thick that a woman who saw it thought that she saw smoke rising, and she called the fire brigade.
     
Three units with ten firefighters arrived on the scene. It took only a short time to determine the real cause of the “smoke”.
      “The woman who called in the report said at first that I was blind when I didn’t see the smoke. When I looked closer with my binoculars, I noticed that it was a swarm of mosquitoes”, firefighter Matti Lassuri laughed.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Mosquitoes emerge three weeks ahead of schedule (8.6.2007)
  Rainy and warm weather brought exceptionally large numbers of mosquitos this summer (25.8.2005)
  More mosquitos expected this summer than last year (18.6.2004)

Helsingin Sanomat