Rupture in Vantaa district heating line leaves residents cold
Helsingin Sanomat publication delayed
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A break in the main pipeline of the district heating system of the city of Vantaa cut off heat distribution to nearly the whole city on Tuesday. Thousands of people were still without heat on Wednesday morning.
Chilly weather meant that temperatures inside single-family homes had gone down to about ten degrees Celsius. In apartment houses, with more massive concrete structures, temperatures declined only a few degrees.
The problem was fixed early Wednesday morning. The district heating stations of Koivukylä, Hakunila, and Maarinkulma in the east of Vantaa started producing heat again at midnight, and in the morning the situation was largely back to normal in the west of the city.
The break in the pipeline occurred at six PM Tuesday in Myyrmäki, causing shortages of district heat and hot water to tens of thousands of homes during a severe cold spell. At worst it affected 150,000 residents of Vantaa.
The break occurred in the main pipeline, which caused pressure to drop in the entire district heating system.
Vantaa Energy began receiving telephone calls from households and companies on Tuesday evening on falling indoor temperatures.
The cause of the rupture was not certain. Such problems are usually the result of corrosion caused by water seeping into the channels, causing the pipes to rust from the outside.
The disruption of district heating led to a delay in morning newspaper distribution. The publication of Helsingin Sanomat was delayed by at least two hours.
As there had been no heating in the Sanomala printing centre in Vantaa almost all night, some of the equipment used in the distribution process was frozen, and much of the work had to be done by hand.
Because of the delay, Helsingin Sanomat opened the full content of its Finnish language digital edition, which is normally only available on a subscription basis, to all Internet users free of charge on Wednesday.
Helsingin Sanomat
