Valkjärvi school is being extinguished on Monday morning in Nurmijärvi on October 28, 2019. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today
The road is winding as it cuts through the fields in the village of Perttula in Nurmijärvi, about 35 kilometers north of Helsinki. The road goes up and down, and soon by the roadside stands a red wooden building with half of its roof off. There are firemen working. The police are watching and investigating. A closer look reveals a large pile of wood and ash alongside the red wooden building, which has a large clock on its face. The clock seems to have stopped at 03:47, just about 15 minutes after the fire department received the call that the school is burning on Monday morning.
“When I heard the news in the morning, I caught a tear in my eye,” said Christa Kaltiokumpu, 50. “Our beautiful school has burnt down.”
On this rainy, chilly morning Christa, who has lived her life in Nurmijärvi, had arrived to observe the extinguishing of the school that she holds dear in her memories.
Christa Kaltiokumpu, 50, used to attend the school that is now lying as a pile of rubble. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today
Not only did Christa attend the school, so did her father. And her son and daughter. “It was the center of the village, a place for gathering. A wonderful place.”
Valkjärvi school was built in 1922. It was an elementary school for classes 1 to 6 and consisted of two buildings. The other, where teaching was arranged, has now been destroyed.
The police are investigating the fire as aggravated criminal mischief. No persons were injured in the fire. The case is the second one to happen in the past few days in Nurmijärvi. Another wooden elementary school, in the neighboring village of Lepsämä, located about eight kilometers from Perttula, was nearly destroyed on Saturday morning. The destroyed building was built in 2002 and was the main premises for teaching. An old building, built in 1929, survived.
On Monday afternoon there were construction workers working on the burnt building in Lepsämä. The roof was a mishmash of insulating material, wood and ash. The sound of the drill covered the sound of children playing at the schoolyard next to the old building that survived. The children are now temporarily studying in the old building.
The children were restlessly running across the yard.
Then the sound of the drill took over.
A video of the extinguishing work on Monday. Filming: Tony Öhberg
The education continues in the old section of Lepsämä school that survived the fire. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today
