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A Hundred People Fall-off their Roofs |
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By News
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Tuesday, 02 March 2010 |
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Over a hundred people have fallen off their roofs in the last week trying to get rid of snow.
The falls, by people shovelling large amounts of snow off their roofs, have led to three fatalities, according to Helsingin Sanomat.
The snow has been heaviest in southern Finland and it has been there where roofs have collapsed and where all of the fatalities took place. In Kouvola, a fifty year old man fell from his roof when the remaining snow avalanched knocking him to the ground and burying him alive. On Saturday in Leppivirta, an elderly man fell off his roof and died. On the same day, near Lahti, a 40 year old man died when a large amount of snow fell off a roof and buried him.
Doctors have reported high numbers of people being seriously injured trying to clear snow from their roofs. Many have blamed the Housing Minister, Jan Vaapavuori, for unduly alarming people by encouraging them to remove snow from their roofs. They have claimed that the roofs of detached houses would be very unlikely to collapse and it would be structures such as barns and bicycle sheds which would be more at risk. The minister has defended his comments telling YLE that if you go on your roof you should have proper safety precautions in place.
In Kokkola, two and a half hours south of Oulu, some people were paying 28 euros per hour for professionals to remove the snow from their roofs on Saturday. In some cases, it took as long as four or five hours to properly clear the roof.
Helsinki has been worst hit. On Saturday, a porch roof collapsed under weight of snow and a supermarket was evacuated for fear the roof would cave in. On many people's roofs the snow is around a metre deep, according to Helsingin Sanomat.
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