Valley explosion|The eyewitness drew attention to the fact that there was no warning sound from the explosion.
Helsinki native Heli Mattila was leaving physiotherapy at the Validia rehabilitation center when he heard a huge thump from the Laakso construction site.
“The explosion was so strong that the heart almost stopped,” he says.
The windows in the lobby of the rehabilitation center are large glass windows. Through them he could see a huge cloud of dust.
The Validia rehabilitation center is located on Nordenskiöldinkatu, right next to the Laakso hospital, next to the construction site.
Matt’s the physical therapy had finished at 2:30 p.m. and he was waiting in the lobby for a taxi that was supposed to pick him up at 2:45 p.m. The police received a report about the explosion accident on Friday at 2:40 p.m.
Mattila says that she goes to physical therapy several times a week and that she is used to the sounds of explosions at the construction site. This time, however, he drew attention to the fact that no warning sound had been heard.
He went outside to check the situation and saw workers in the construction site who ran to the scene. According to Mattila, the men themselves were shocked.
“I asked them what had happened and they said that the excavator driver hit an unexploded construction site explosive with his bucket. They said the man was injured,” he says.
Later, the rescue service informed that two people working at the construction site were injured in the accident.
Little after a while, the rescue service and the police arrived. Mattila’s taxi arrived to pick him up.
“We drove through Urheilukatu and I saw police cars there and there were a lot of large stones and boulders on the ground,” says Mattila.
He says that he himself was shocked by the situation.
According to Mattila, the situation had the ingredients of a bigger accident. The strength of the explosion is characterized by the fact that one large boulder flew 300 meters over Mannerheimintie to Stenbäckintiewhere two cars were wrecked.
“In the middle of rush hour, when there are a lot of people on the move, if something like this happens, it could have been bad for anyone,” he says.
At the time of the accident a metal music festival called Hellsinki Metal Festival was also starting. They tell about HS’s accident the thing on the comment section, a festival-goer says that he heard an explosion in the queue at the festival.
“There were several hundred people in line in the yard of the ice rink, so if the stone had flown in that direction, it would have been quite a nasty result,” he describes.
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