Helsinki’s Rescue School, which has trained the city’s firefighters for almost half a century, has been granted a reprieve from closure by the government.
Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo (Green) has granted a temporary permit for the school to continue training students. The last class will be admitted in 2021 with a 2023 graduation.
Before then, a full independent evaluation will be carried out of the Helsinki Rescue School’s teaching.
“I am happy, and I was very satisfied when I heard the news” says Matti Waitinen, Principal of Helsinki Fire School.
“I have been expecting that something will happen to this permit of our school, but the only bad thing is that it’s temporary this permission. But who knows during these years the politicians will understand the values of having a Helsinki school” he tells News Now Finland.
“The safety of the people living in Helsinki is our number one priority. We are the biggest fire department in Finland and we are the only fire department that’s got our own school” Waitinen adds.
Why was the rescue school under threat
The previous government decided to close the school, which is paid for by Helsinki tax payers and provides new firefighters to meet the needs of the city’s department, as part of its regional reform plans.
All training for rescue services was to be centralised in Kuopio. However, those plans for more regional reform fell through when the government changed.
Proponents of keeping a firefighter training school open in Helsinki say the city has specific needs, and specific training scenarios that Kuopio simply doesn’t offer: like high rise buildings, an extensive underground tunnel system, metros and public transport network, open sea and archipelago.
Plans to open more fire stations in Helsinki also means that just one rescue school, in Kuopio, wouldn’t have been able to produce enough qualified firemen.
“Helsinki is planning to build four new fire stations, and to get stuff working in one new fire station we need 34 to 36 new fire fighters” Waitinen explains.
And although training capacity in Kuopio is set to increase, it won’t be enough in the short term.
“One of the key challenges in ensuring the safety of Finns in the coming years is the availability of sufficient personnel in the rescue sector. The limited license granted will help to ensure that rescuers are adequately trained for the needs of the coming years. By extending the license, we will enable the City of Helsinki to ensure the availability of sufficient personnel for emergency rescue operations” Ohisalo writes.
At the beginning of the 1990s there were two rescue training schools in the capital city region: the Helsinki school; and one in Otaniemi, Espoo.
The Espoo school was closed down and operations moved to Kuopio as part of a previous government’s regional reform plans.
You might also be interested in:
