Police investigate large explosion in Espoo
The Espoo Police are investigating a large explosion that occurred at a construction site in Espoo on Monday. At this point, the police are regarding the blast as an accident. However, the accident could have been caused by negligent handling of explosives.
Ten people were injured in the accident, one of them severely. Three daycare-aged children and their mother were among the victims.
The most severely injured victim - a truck driver - was taken to the intensive care unit of the Töölö Hospital, but his condition is not life-threatening. The other injured persons were allowed to go home after first aid.
According to preliminary information, the explosion occurred while a digger was loading rocks onto the flat bed of a truck, and a large rock fell from the pile onto the adjacent boxes containing dynamite. The explosion broke the wall and roof of a nearby detached house as well as the windows of a number of other buildings within a large area around the scene.
According to Detective Inspector Sakari Juurikkala from the Espoo Police, the two boxes next to the truck contained some 30 kilograms of dynamite. The police and occupational health officials suspected that the dynamite and detonators were kept in the same boxes.
Jan Rosqvist from the Uusimaa Occupational Health District noted that according to the regulations, the amount of explosives that is permitted to be kept at a construction site is the amount needed for one day. Moreover, the detonators or primers have to be stored separately. Any explosives that are to be used later must be stored in locked containers.
The police evacuated the residents within a 200-metre radius from the explosion site, cordoning off the accident scene, as the explosion spread a large number of detonators, some of them now in dangerously unstable condition, into the neighbourhood of the construction site.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 25.4.2006 - TODAY |
 Police investigate large explosion in Espoo
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