Helsinki sees potentially lethal arson cases almost once a week
Police have alunched around 260 fire investigations this year; serial arsonists and pyromaniacs rare
The Helsinki Police Department are alerted of dangerous criminal acts of deliberately setting fire to property almost once a week.
Typical targets for such arson offences are residential property. Churches have also been a target of arsonists, with the most famous recent case being thta of Porvoo Cathedral.
Helsinki police officers investigate as many as 50 arsons a year that pose a real threat to life or health.
Detective Inspector Markku Stenberg reports that milder criminal acts involving a fire occur on a daily basis.
”Garbage bins are burned almost every day, which tends to be youth mischief. However, the same perpetrators usually cause other vandalism as well”, said Stenberg.
In the course of the current year, the fire investigation unit of the Helsinki Police Department has already conducted investigations into a total of 260 fires.
Usually half of the cases are found not to involve any crime.
”The threshold to investigate is low, and in cases of a major fire we principally always suspect that a crime has happened until proven otherwise”, Stenberg notes.
Even if there is no suspicion of a crime, this approach is adopted in order to find out whether or not the fire in question was caused by potential negligence of safety precautions.
A total of nine people have died in fires in the capital city this year. Usually the annual number of fire victims is more than ten.
The fire investigation unit is currently investigating a series of larger arsons in the district of Malmi, Tapanila, and Laajasalo, among others. However, the police say that such arson series are rather rare.
According to Stenberg, people who are found guilty of arsons are usually individuals with mental health problems.
”Problems accumulate. There is unemployment and family trouble. Frequently drugs and alcohol are also involved”, Stenberg observes.
However, classical pyromaniacs are not commonly encountered by police. Pyromania is an impulse to deliberately start fires.
”There is usually some other reason behind the criminal act”; Stenberg says.
Insurance frauds are another group of crimes not common in Helsinki, for all that the police - and insurers - are well aware fire can be used to this end.
The police record arsons rather regularly all year through, while the most busy period is the summer and the most quiet time is the early months of the year.
In Stenberg’s view, fire safety has generally improved in recent years, mainly thanks to attitude education and regulation by the authorities. For example, the number of large basement and attic fires in apartment houses has declined significantly.
Helsingin Sanomat
|
| 29.9.2008 - TODAY |
 Helsinki sees potentially lethal arson cases almost once a week |
|
