The prosecutor demanded a fine for the resident of the senior housing for careless handling of the fire. The resident had burned a candle in a wooden basket.
Middle Finland On Monday, the district court rejected the prosecution for the fire in the seniors’ house that broke out in Jyväskylä in July 2020, says Central Finland. The court gave its verdict orally at the end of the hearing.
The prosecutor demanded a fine for the resident of the senior housing for careless handling of the fire. The resident had burned a candle in a wooden basket on the balcony of his apartment.
The fire spread to the wooden floor grates of the balcony and further to the wooden wall, where it was able to spread due to the lack of fire breaks in the house’s structures.
In the written answer submitted to the District Court of Central Finland, the resident admitted that he had burned the candle, but denied that he had committed the crime. In his answer, he told the court that he extinguished the candle after some time and that there was an aluminum cover under the candle.
According to Keskisuomainen, the court found it undisputed that the rapid spread of the fire was not caused by the carelessness of the woman who burned the candle, but by construction errors.
Also The Accident Investigation Center (Otkes), which investigated the start of the fire and the extinguishing work, found significant flaws in the building’s structures.
According to the investigation report completed by Otkes in April 2021, according to the building regulations and building permit drawings, the vertical cavities of the balcony facade had to be cut off with fire breaks. However, these interruptions were missing from the more detailed plans during the work, Otkes said.
According to Otkes, the fire spread through the balcony along the wooden wall structures to the roof, from where it also spread to the roofs of the other buildings in the block of flats. There were 166 apartments in the apartment complex, of which nearly a hundred suffered water or smoke damage due to the fire and its extinguishing, Otkes estimates.
According to Otkes, four people were injured during the evacuation of the fire.
Numerous residents of the apartment building are demanding compensation from the accused for the costs caused by the fire and extinguishing work, such as arrangements related to alternative housing. The accused resident denies the compensation claims.
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