As Greece grapples with a devastating fire that claimed the lives of two crew members, in Finland's Imatra, flames destroyed a protected wooden building over a century old, once home to esteemed writer Hilja Valtonen.
Two separate fires in Europe raised serious concerns on Monday. In Greece, the air force took to the skies to battle a large forest fire west of Athens, just a day after a mid-air collision killed two men. Meanwhile, in the Finnish city of Imatra, a fire completely destroyed a cultural heritage site overnight-a wooden building over 100 years old.
Five firefighting aircraft and five more helicopters took off at dawn on Monday to assist hundreds of firefighters in battling a large blaze west of Athens, according to CBC News. The operation was launched a day after the tragic mid-air collision of two aircraft, which resulted in the deaths of two crew members.
The fire is raging near the Greek capital, and authorities are making maximum efforts to prevent its further spread. Details about the cause of the collision have not yet been released.
By Monday morning, only stone foundations and smoke remained of the old Linnala wooden school in Imatra, Finland. The fire that broke out on Sunday evening completely destroyed the building where Hilja Valtonen, a respected and prolific Finnish author, once lived, YLE reports. The building, over a century old and constructed in the 1920s, held protected cultural heritage status.
Heikki Varis, property manager at the city-owned company Mitra, commented bitterly on the loss. "The building wasn't meant to be demolished; it was waiting for better times. What happened is that it's now been torn down," Varis told YLE. He added that the building had been a target of vandalism for years: "There were many break-ins, things were smashed, and windows were shattered. People ran wild with axes and used drugs."
Seventeen-year-old Niklas Mäkelä received a message from a friend about the fire on Sunday evening. His association, Robocamp, which introduces children and young people to robotics, is located in a neighboring stone building that fortunately remained untouched. "It was a relief that our equipment and association's belongings didn't burn in the fire," Mäkelä told YLE. He believes the fire was deliberately set, given that suspicious individuals often gathered around the abandoned building.
YLE journalist Vesa Winberg shared similar concerns, rushing to the scene thinking that the building housing his band's rehearsal space was also on fire. "My own band has a rehearsal room in the neighboring school, and the first information I received was that the rehearsal room was burning," he said.
Police are investigating the cause of the fire in Imatra, and duty fire chief Mikko Kuismanen told YLE that the fire may have smoldered for a long time in the structure of the unmonitored wooden building before flaring up. The building had been empty for several years and had serious indoor air quality issues, which is why it was not in use.
Both events, though geographically distant, highlight the vulnerability of European communities to fires, whether threatening natural landscapes in Greece or cultural heritage in Finland.
