Press release 19.6.2002

On 4 December 1999, a fire at the senior citizen service house Viljami in Maaninka claimed the lives of five people. During the three months following this fire, seventeen other fires occurred in corresponding homes in Finland, claiming three more lives. No logical explanation could be found for this surfeit in the number of fires.

The Investigation Commission on the Maaninka fire has investigated all eighteen fires. The investigation revealed that fire safety in residential facilities for the senior citizens is clearly worse than for the population as a whole. It is not the age of the residents in itself that is a problem, but various decreases in ability to function that sooner or later accompanies age. From the point of view of fire safety, the most problematic decreases are in mobility, perceptions and understanding. As a consequence, elderly residents or patients may not be able to attend to their own safety in the event of a fire, for example by taking the initiative in seeking safety. This decrease in ability to function has not been taken into consideration in the construction of facilities for the elderly or in establishing safety requirements for the operation of such facilities. This systematic error has been the key reason for the lower standard of safety among the elderly as compared to among the population as a whole.

The recommendations included in the report are primarily intended to correct this systematic error. The Investigation Commission proposes that individual evacuation time calculations and the accompanying safety analysis always be prepared when new residential premises are being built for persons with a lower ability to function, or when such premises are being repaired. The safety analysis should be used to determine the sufficient fire safety class for the building. On the basis of the two years of experience with the safety analysis project in Tampere, a common conclusion is that an automatic fire-fighting system (a sprinkler system) should be installed in the premises under consideration. A decision has already been made to install sprinkler systems in some 20 homes for the elderly, homes for the mentally ill and similar facilities in the Tampere region or elsewhere in Finland, and in some cases such systems have already been installed.

Due to the primacy of the need to rescue the residents, and due to the limited resources available at the scene, effective measures to extinguish the fire at the “Viljami” home for the senior citizens in Maaninka were not initiated until about one hour and forty-five minutes after the fire began. An analysis of the sequence of events has led to the conclusion that no individual measure in the rescue could have altered the course of events so significantly that all of the persons who died in the fire could have been rescued. Only a sprinkler system installed throughout the entire building could have fully prevented the deaths caused by the fire.

A residential fire may develop to the general combustion stage already in three or four minutes. In order for it to be possible for the personnel to rescue residents from rooms that are on fire, the staffing of service homes and homes for the elderly should be based on the assumption that an automatic fire alarm can be communicated to people who can evacuate the residents within two or three minutes of receipt. Fire alarms in themselves are not enough, as has been shown in several reports of the investigation of fires. If this goal cannot be reached, then a sprinkler system is a necessity.

In recent construction, sprinkler systems have cost between 25 and 35 euros per square metre. This cannot be considered expensive. The cost per residence has been between 1500 and 2500 euros, depending on the size of the residence and the type of structure. In nursing homes, the cost has been about 1000 euros per bed. It may be noted that also the Norwegian authorities, in their investigation of the fire that occurred in the Harstad residential and service centre on 18 March 2001 and that claimed three lives, that only a sprinkler system would have prevented this loss of life.

The preparation of a corresponding safety analysis and safety plan is recommended also in the case of residential buildings that are already in use for the elderly and other persons with a diminished ability to function. The results of the safety analysis should be used, where necessary, to raise the safety level of these buildings to the required level. It is often necessary to install a sprinkler system also in existing buildings in order to prevent loss of life.

In order to slow the spread of a fire, old row houses that share an attic or hollowed roof should be divided, according to present provisions, into separate premises, up to the roof. This would considerably slow the spread of a fire in the attic, and at the same time retard the fire from endangering neighboring premises. This would also significantly cut down on potential property damage. Such buildings were constructed during the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. Since then, construction requirements have been tightened in the wake of fatal fires in row housing.

From the point of view of fire safety, the actions taken by personnel are important. The investigation showed that there was often room for improvement in this respect. It is necessary to create a culture of safety and improve internal monitoring of fire safety. The safety awareness and skills of personnel should be improved through training and drills.

The rescue services should improve their state of readiness to act in such high-risk facilities, by improving the planning of such facilities and by engaging in rescue drills together with personnel. Fire prevention work should be improved.

Here you can read the summary of the report in English and download the whole report in Finnish.