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COLD FACTS
It's the worst forest fire in modern times.
But could this terrible devastation have been prevented?
We've investigated our fire service, and a new, alarming picture emerges.
It's early August 2014. For 7 days now, firefighters have been battling this fire.
Thousands of hectares of forest are charred and people have fled.
It's a tragedy. Generations of trees have been destroyed.
Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden
By now the forest fire has covered an enormous area.
But all big fires start small.
The local rescue service centre got the fire alert on July 31.
Two fire brigades and one rescue leader were sent to the scene.
The only information we have is from our beepers.
They tell us where it is, and that it covers a 30-square-metre area.
On the same day that the fire in Västmanland county started
another one started in Medelpad county.
We have maps, we check the soil conditions
the prognosis for the day. We analyse the situation.
We decide to bring in a helicopter immediately.
Two forest fires started the same day
but they'll be handled differently, with totally different consequences.
BIG FIRES START SMALL
We'll return to the two forest fires.
But first let's see how our rescue service works.
(INFO CLIP)
Our fire department is popular.
Few professions are so trusted by the public as firefighters.
People have a lot of faith in us, the rescue service. That's good.
But what's bad about that is that few people question us.
Linus Eriksson worked in the rescue service for 10 years
five of them as a fire official.
I can only compare us with the police and with healthcare workers.
How much is written about patient safety infractions
and police intervention at football games and riots and other kinds of incidents.
You seldom see similar articles about our rescue service.
How we handled an incident
and what the consequences were for those affected.
What do you think of our fire service?
We're really good at everyday incidents:
traffic accidents, fires in flats, things that happen frequently.
What's challenging are more complex and infrequent occurrences.
Linus Eriksson gives examples of failed attempts to put out big fires
including one under his own command.
I'll never forget that morning when we gathered together the 90 families
who had been made homeless.
There was dead silence. Someone was sobbing, someone wept silently
and that feeling, as I told them their homes were destroyed
and that they couldn't return for a long time. I'll never forget that.
What began in one flat spread throughout the entire complex.
It started in that gable, above one of the flats.
We had plenty of resources at the scene and the leadership to handle it.
But the fire spread nonetheless. We chose to send a group of smoke divers
to the fireless side, which is what you do when a flat is burning.
But not a fully developed fire advancing at 15 metres/second with a backdraught.
That would've required positive pressure ventilation
gas cooling of the fire, counterpressure in the fireless areas.
We did the wrong thing. I think it happens a lot.
MSB (the Swedish civil contingencies agency) monitors firefighting efforts.
Its director general, Kjell Wahlbeck
agrees that too many firefighting efforts are unsatisfactory.
Our rescue leaders should get a much more comprehensive training.
- But they have drills. Isn't that enough? - No.
They need to acquire new knowledge
and keep up with new methodology, new technology, new tactics.
When I say that, I must emphasize that I'm generalising a lot.
The rescue service in Sweden varies a good deal.
Let's return to the forest fires in Västmanland and in Medelpad
to see how they were handled.
When Medelpad's rescue service arrived at the scene
the fire was about the size of a football field.
The first thing they did was bring in a helicopter.
We realised right away that we needed a helicopter to dampen the flames.
I reported that to our field command.
We get in touch with a helicopter firm that does a great job. They come down
and one-and-a-half hours later, we have water from that helicopter.
It didn't put out the fire, but it kept it from spreading rapidly.
We succeeded because we made that decision so early.
In addition to a helicopter
Medelpad's rescue service also brought in the home guard.
We realise right away that we can't handle this with our ten men alone.
We've trained together with the home guard for several years
and we have been very satisfied with their work.
Let's return to the fire in Västmanland.
When the firefighters arrived, the fire was the size of four football fields.
It was even hotter and drier here than in Medelpad
so the risk of spreading was even greater.
We unroll our hoses and fill them with water
and spray water on the flames.
You try to knock out the flames to keep it from spreading so fast.
When you first got there did you decide to bring in a helicopter?
No, I focussed on getting our men started working.
So I wasn't in any position to think about calling for helicopters.
These are our helicopters for fighting fires.
In Västerås, a few minutes' flight away from the forest fire
is a helicopter firm with good capacity for extinguishing forest fires.
But the rescue leader did not call them.
It was a 7-minute flight from the fire to our base.
If we allow for a phone call and the preparing of the four helicopters
the first helicopter could've been there in 15-20 minutes.
What difference would it have made?
The fire would've been extinguished that same night.
Instead, the forest fire spread even farther; northeast, towards Sala.
Not until 9 pm was the first helicopter brought in, from a firm at Arlanda Airport.
After one hour, it grew too dark to water bomb the fire.
We could've called for a helicopter already at 3 pm.
But first you need to get a grasp of the situation
and then get a grasp of how it's going to develop.
Then, which resources we'll need: water tenders, mechanical sprayers, hoses.
The helicopter isn't our first priority.
Unlike Medelpad, Västmanland's rescue service didn't bring in the home guard.
Despite the fact that the home guard had asked to assist.
We couldn't accept their offer.
We had enough to do giving our own men instructions.
Have you carried out forest fire drills with the home guard?
No, we haven't carried out drills of any kind with them.
We listened to the radio the whole time.
I was totally convinced that everything was going to go hell.
- How close did it come to your house? - 1 1/2 metres.
This house, for instance, is a holiday house.
But they got water from us, we shared the same well.
- Someone died here. Was it nearby? - Yes, not far away.
One of them died, the other was severely burned, but has survived.
You have to leave!
Go down there by the policeman!
You saw the flames getting closer and burning more and more at the end
closest to our house. You asked yourself why they didn't do something.
Despite the millions of euros in damages to life and property each year
a fireman can become a rescue leader after taking a mere six-week course.
MSB offers further training to raise the competence of fire officials.
But the courses are voluntary, and in the last three years
thirty-five courses have been cancelled due to a lack of interest
according to what Cold Facts has learned.
It means they don't have the competence.
These courses offer content that cannot be offered
by one's own rescue service.
This results in lower competence.
One of the cancelled courses is Rescue Leadership B.
In 9 weeks, rescue leaders get deeper insight
into leadership skills for complex forest fires.
Many rescue leaders in Sweden lack this training.
We're awakened by neighbours knocking on our door.
Another neighbour rang our mobile phone, trying to wake us
to say that we needed to leave immediately.
We meet Maria and Lasse.
Until last March, they lived in a terrace house in Trollhättan.
Me and a neighbour, Tomas, stood there saying
"The fire brigade will take care of it before it gets to our houses."
By the time the fire brigade arrived
there was a fully developed fire in one of the terrace houses.
They pumped water on it from the tanker truck, but it soon ran out.
They found no fire hydrants.
In 5 minutes, they were out of water and incapable of fighting the flames.
The hoses were too short.
They failed completely. They were clueless from the beginning.
This fire was too big for them to deal with.
The fire spread quickly from the first house, which was the fire's start point.
But no foam or water was used on Lasse and Maria's row of houses
five metres away, to help them resist the heat.
You're frustrated because they're doing nothing
as you see the fire growing closer
and it's getting hotter and burning more at the end closest to our house.
You stand there wondering why they don't do anything.
The rescue leader had not taken the course Rescue Leadership B.
Not till 25 minutes after the alert rang did a better trained leader take command.
I make the decision that we don't have enough resources to save that house
and must try to protect the surrounding dwellings instead.
You made no attempt to save this house?
Under the extreme conditions that night
especially the late discovery of the fire and the gusty wind.
I still think we made the right decision to protect the adjacent buildings.
Lasse and Maria's house was totally destroyed
and they're forced to live in a basement temporarily.
Maybe they think they succeeded, by saving the other buildings.
But with the right measures, they could've easily saved our house.
When you think about it as a whole: the hydrants, the water and the hoses.
I think the firefighters did a very poor job. It's unspeakable.
The Trollhättan firefighters' performance is now under review.
But the incident is not unique.
In three years there've been more than 1,800 building fires in Sweden
in which the fire spread from its start point
despite the rescue service being present, according to our research.
1,800 instances in which the rescue service is present.
That's very interesting because it means
that the rescue service is on the scene, and then it spreads from the start point.
That isn't good.
Let's return to the summer's two forest fires.
Did the lack of training make a difference?
One course, on forest fires and their social impact
had to be cancelled last spring due to a lack of interest.
You haven't taken the MSB course on forest fires?
No. There are a lot of different courses on offer about rescue service.
You have to decide whether it seems important or not.
Before this, we didn't think there were any gaps in our knowledge
so there was no reason to take a course.
We used to wonder why we were taking those courses.
Now we know that we can interpret data correctly as a result.
The fire officials in Medelpad have learned about the latest discoveries
from Canada about fighting big forest fires.
If we talk about fire risks in the forest, this is what can burn in the soil.
And in the soil there is the shrub layer and the humus layer.
By studying wind, air moisture, and the water content in the soil
they can estimate how fast a forest fire will spread.
They talk about a fire-weather index, FWI.
Mats Bergmark has analysed the fire risk data
for the Västmanland forests on July 31.
On the day the fire starts, the FFMC is 90, which is relatively high.
The DMC is 69, which is rather high.
The DC is very high, 459.
And the FWI is 34.
Those are extremely high values.
These numbers indicate that it will be a deep fire, hard to extinguish.
It goes deep into the humus layer. That's a reason for drastic measures.
Had you checked the data prognosis for that day?
No, I hadn't.
Had anyone in the field command?
I'd be surprised if they had.
Have you done any work with that FWI index?
Nope.
The values on that particular day were extremely high.
But you have to understand what that means.
It could say the value is 10.9 or 81 or 102
but if I don't understand what that number means, it has no value.
What do you think when you hear that they feel
that they lack the training to deal with a situation like this?
If you don't know about the new technological discoveries
and the new leadership tools for analysing and charting
making geographic observations, evaluating the situation, etc.
If you don't know about any of this you're in trouble from the start.
Those in command in Medelpad had forest fire training
and brought in helicopters and the home guard right away.
The quickly suppressed fire burned only about 100 hectares.
In Västmanland they waited before using aggressive tactics.
14,000 hectares of forests were destroyed by the fire.
Twenty-six buildings were levelled, and one man lost his life.
When you see the destruction and know that people have died
and that one is severely burned
you feel that this is appalling, this really sucks.
An accident is an accident
but they had all the possibilities in the world to save the situation.
Why don't they do it?
In Sweden we handle everyday traffic accidents and flat fires very well.
But our ability to handle major occurrences
is something we do little to improve.
We can't be experts in every area.
One needs to know about a lot of things, but maybe not in depth about everything.
Discuss our programme with our reporters on Facebook and Twitter
and find out more about our investigation at tv4.se/kalla-fakta.
Next week we investigate the most hidden sides of the internet.
On the so-called Darknet, serious crime flourishes uncontrolled.
And you can order just about anything.
Subtitles by Susanna Stevens Svensk Medietext