Report suggests Helsinki's rescue services at critical level

Too few firefighters, too few units, and slipping response times

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The operational readiness of the City of Helsinki Rescue Department does not meet the requirements of current legislation. A study carried out on behalf of the State Provincial Office of Southern Finland argues that readiness in the capital does not match up to the special risks found locally.
      One problem is that there are too few separate units relative to the number of accidents, and personnel levels are also at or below critical levels. According to Deputy Mayor Pekka Sauri (Green), the city has already taken steps to rectify the situation.
     
The report delivered by Yrjö Lindroos, an inspector at the Rescue Department of the Southern Finland Provincial Office, has led to calls for action from the Office. The State Provincial Office has the power to order the City of Helsinki to arrange its rescue services at an acceptable level, and can impose fines as penalty for non-compliance.
      There have been no significant changes in the staff numbers at the Helsinki Rescue Department between 1986 and 2004. The relative reduction in staffing at units has been brought on by personnel being used increasingly for emergency ambulance work, shortened working hours, and a variety of limitations on staff working capacity.
      In his response, Sauri (who is Deputy Mayor for Public Works and Environmental Affairs) said that a package was being put together with a view to increasing the number of firefighters' posts in the capital. He also promised salary increases in the fall.
      Last Tuesday, the City of Helsinki's Rescue Committee discussed the service level for the period 2005-2008, and is to put forward a plan for the development of service levels in the capital. If the targets are to be realised, Helsinki will have to put considerably more money into its rescue services.
      The State Provincial Office loked into the readiness of the Helsinki Rescue Department at the request of the Ministry of the Interior, where doubts had been expressed about changes in the capacity of the units to meet their commitments. It was believed that response times had grown longer in the course of the early part of this year.
     
The response time in this instance begins from the moment when the rescue unit receives an alarm from the emergency centre and ends when the first unit arrives on the scene.
      For example in the so-called first risk zone, a rescue service unit should arrive at the accident scene within six minutes of the call-out.
      In 2004 the average response time in this area was seven minutes 24 seconds. At the end of last year, the time increased by around a minute. Only in around half of the cases of call-out do emergency units get where they are supposed to be inside the 6-minute target figure.
     
Staff at the City of Helsinki Rescue Department have the longest working hours in the country, but the salary level is among the lowest.
      According to a recent survey, the average working week for a Helsinki firefighter is 43 hours 48 minutes. The fact that conditions and rewards elsewhere in the immediate area are more attractive has led to a haemorrhaging of staff.
      In the course of 2004 some 20 firefighters and ambulance personnel handed in their notice, meaning the staff strength is currently around 50 below par. Average ages of firefighters have also increased, with one effect of this being that some of the older firemen are not capable of carrying out all the tasks they would be charged with, for instance smoke diving missions.
     
There are also plans on the table for the building of new fire stations in Helsinki, since in some cases it is not possible even in theory to get from the nearest station to the scene of a fire or accident in six minutes.
      The western part of Lauttasaari is one case in point, as are the Malminkartano and Siltamäki suburbs.
      It has been suggested that a new station is urgently needed close to the bridge across to the island of Lauttasaari. This would not only serve residents at the Espoo end of the island, but would also be necessary to provide better cover for the new residential and business area of Ruoholahti and for the anticipated large-scale similar development of Jätkäsaari (part of the West Harbour) when the new purpose-built Vuosaari Harbour is completed.


Links:
  City of Helsinki Rescue Department

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