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FIRE

Swedish farm school blaze kills 70 cattle

Seventy cows died in the early hours of Friday after a barn at an agricultural high school about 50 kilometres south of Stockholm caught fire.

Published: 22 March 2013 07:41 CET
Swedish farm school blaze kills 70 cattle

Emergency services were alerted to the fire at the giant barn at Naturbruksgymnasium high school in the town Ytterjärna at about 2.30am.

Firefighters from six nearby stations rushed to the rescue, but the barn’s structure had crumbled by morning.

“Now we just have minimal presence on site – one firetruck and two staff – to make sure the remains of the fire don’t spread,” emergency service spokesman Roger Magnusson told the TT news agency.

He said the cause of the fire was yet to be determined.

“When we arrived the barn was more or less entirely engulfed by fire so it is difficult to even say where it started,” said Magnusson.

“The other two buildings on campus that contain a workshop, classrooms, a hay loft, and stables seem to be unaffected,” he added.

No people were hurt in the blaze.

The agricultural high school is owned by the Nibble Foundation (Nibblestiftelsen), which focuses on biodynamic milk production.

Ytterjärna and its environs are home to many agricultural and educational establishments inspired by the anthroposophic movement.

TT/The Local/at

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FIRE

Why have there been so many fires in Copenhagen this year?

Thursday’s fire at Denmark’s tax ministry follows a blaze at the historic Old Stock Exchange and several fires at the headquarters of pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk on the outskirts of Copenhagen.

Published: 27 June 2024 15:11 CEST
Why have there been so many fires in Copenhagen this year?

A fire broke out on Thursday morning on the roof of the building which houses Denmark’s Tax Ministry in central Copenhagen, which fire services in the capital were able to put out shortly afterwards.

The Tax Ministry fire is at least the fifth high-profile blaze in and around Copenhagen since April, following three at different buildings owned by pharma giant Novo Nordisk and the devastating fire which turned parts of the historic Old Stock Exchange (Børsen) to rubble.

The high number of fires occurring within a relatively short period appears to be down to no more than chance, Jens Kastvig, an expert with the Danish Society of Engineers said to newswire Ritzau.

“There’s always a risk that a fire can break out in a building,” Kastvig said, noting that the average annual fire rate is around one per 100,000 to 150,000 square metre of building.

“That could be anything from a smaller to a larger fire,” he said.

Kastvig said that he initially guessed the Tax Ministry fire was the result of renovation work.

Both Børsen and the Novo Nordisk buldings were also undergoing renovations at the time of their fires. This increases the risk of fire breaking out in a more flammable material such as bitumen waterproofing, or a fire otherwise related to the ongoing work.

No renovations were ongoing at the Tax Ministry however, the building’s owner ATP Ejendomme has confirmed.

“The fire services are busy at the moment. But I hope it’s a coincidence,” Kastvig said.

Tim Ole Sørensen of the Copenhagen Fire Service, Hovedstadens Beredskab, said on Thursday that there was no suggestion that the fires were related.

“There’s nothing that indicates any form of connection at all to us, and we are talking about very different businesses and types of building,” he said.

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