Accidents around Finland kill four during holidays
Eight-year-old girl puts out fire in Salo
Three men and one woman died in accidents over the Christmas holidays. Two of the victims died in fires in their homes.
A fire which gutted the old disused railway station building at Halikko briefly cut the railway line between Helsinki and Turku late on Saturday night, and an eight-year-old girl saved her house from burning down on Christmas Day.
A woman about 60 years old died in a fire in her home in Rantsila in Northern Ostrobothnia late Saturday.
A man died on Sunday evening in a fire at his home in the Muotiala district of Tampere.
A 38-year-old man in the Northern Ostrobothnian community of Utajärvi was killed late on Saturday when the snowmobile he was riding crashed into a tree. The accident apparently happened when the vehicle's accelerator got stuck.
A 40-year-old man was killed by a blow from an axe in Eura on Thursday evening. A passer-by found the body the following day in the yard of the house where the man had been drinking with a group of other people. Three were arrested.
An eight-year-old girl prevented a major fire in her home in Salo late on Christmas Day.
The girl was at home alone at eleven in the evening when she saw that the family's cat had knocked over a candle, setting fire to the table that it was on. The rest of the family were seeing off their Christmas guests.
The girl doused the flames with water and called the emergency number.
"All that was left for us to do was to ventilate the room and make sure that there was no lingering fire", said Salo fire chief Kari Alanko.
The main building of the old Karvila sawmill suffered serious fire damage on Saturday night. The building, in Enonkoski in Southern Savo, had been rented out to a group of German guests for Christmas. On Christmas Day they had built a fire in the wood-burning oven, and the flames spread into the home next door through cracks in the oven itself.
A television set caught fire, causing serious damage to a house in Varkaus in the Savo region late on Saturday evening. Passers-by noticed fire on the ground floor of a two-storey house, but the blaze had gone out by itself by the time firefighters arrived.
A man in Leppävirta in Eastern Finland faces charges of attempted arson. Late Saturday night he had poured petrol on furnishings in an apartment house. He had planned to set the apartment on fire, but had second thoughts and left the building with his two school-aged sons.
The 43-year-old man called emergency services himself, and firefighters found a sofa soaked in petrol in the apartment. There was also some petrol on the floor.
The firefighters took the sofa out and ventilated the apartment. The man was detained.
On the highways, return traffic from the Christmas holidays was fairly peaceful. Highway authorities said that traffic congestion on the main roads eased after 6:00 PM Sunday.
Traffic was reportedly slightly heavier than during ordinary weekends. Road conditions were good in most places, with the exception of Finnish Lapland.
Serious accidents were averted. Alcohol was involved in many of the accidents that did take place.
A fire which gutted the old disused railway station building at Halikko briefly cut the railway line between Helsinki and Turku late on Saturday night, and an eight-year-old girl saved her house from burning down on Christmas Day.
A woman about 60 years old died in a fire in her home in Rantsila in Northern Ostrobothnia late Saturday.
A man died on Sunday evening in a fire at his home in the Muotiala district of Tampere.
A 38-year-old man in the Northern Ostrobothnian community of Utajärvi was killed late on Saturday when the snowmobile he was riding crashed into a tree. The accident apparently happened when the vehicle's accelerator got stuck.
A 40-year-old man was killed by a blow from an axe in Eura on Thursday evening. A passer-by found the body the following day in the yard of the house where the man had been drinking with a group of other people. Three were arrested.
An eight-year-old girl prevented a major fire in her home in Salo late on Christmas Day.
The girl was at home alone at eleven in the evening when she saw that the family's cat had knocked over a candle, setting fire to the table that it was on. The rest of the family were seeing off their Christmas guests.
The girl doused the flames with water and called the emergency number.
"All that was left for us to do was to ventilate the room and make sure that there was no lingering fire", said Salo fire chief Kari Alanko.
The main building of the old Karvila sawmill suffered serious fire damage on Saturday night. The building, in Enonkoski in Southern Savo, had been rented out to a group of German guests for Christmas. On Christmas Day they had built a fire in the wood-burning oven, and the flames spread into the home next door through cracks in the oven itself.
A television set caught fire, causing serious damage to a house in Varkaus in the Savo region late on Saturday evening. Passers-by noticed fire on the ground floor of a two-storey house, but the blaze had gone out by itself by the time firefighters arrived.
A man in Leppävirta in Eastern Finland faces charges of attempted arson. Late Saturday night he had poured petrol on furnishings in an apartment house. He had planned to set the apartment on fire, but had second thoughts and left the building with his two school-aged sons.
The 43-year-old man called emergency services himself, and firefighters found a sofa soaked in petrol in the apartment. There was also some petrol on the floor.
The firefighters took the sofa out and ventilated the apartment. The man was detained.
On the highways, return traffic from the Christmas holidays was fairly peaceful. Highway authorities said that traffic congestion on the main roads eased after 6:00 PM Sunday.
Traffic was reportedly slightly heavier than during ordinary weekends. Road conditions were good in most places, with the exception of Finnish Lapland.
Serious accidents were averted. Alcohol was involved in many of the accidents that did take place.
Helsingin Sanomat