A woman on Öland tragically died in a house fire despite alerting emergency services. The rescue team, present at the scene, failed to enter the burning house due to a misjudgment, believing it was impossible for anyone to survive the intense blaze. The incident has prompted an investigation and recommendations for improved training to prevent future tragedies.
Tragic House Fire on Öland: Woman Dies as Rescue Efforts Falter
Tragic House Fire on Öland: Woman Dies as Rescue Efforts Falter
A woman on Öland alerted emergency services about a house fire but tragically perished despite the rescue team's presence.
The fire broke out in a wooden house outside Rälla on Öland around 2 AM on June 13. The woman, recently operated on and with limited mobility, called 112.
While lying in bed, she spoke with the emergency operator.
The smoke alarm's blaring had awakened her. She was in the bedroom of the single-story house, where the window was open. The operator advised her to try escaping through the window, but she replied that she couldn't due to leg pain.
The rescue team arrived at the scene.
Despite being outside the house for 20 minutes while the woman was still alive, they never entered.
"Please come and help me," the woman pleaded in the emergency call, as reported by Barometern-OT.
Call Ends After 36 Minutes
The recording captures the crackling fire and the woman's repeated pleas for help.
After 25 minutes, she reported that her bed was on fire.
After 34 minutes, she was still speaking but noted it was becoming difficult to communicate. The call ended after 36 minutes and 37 seconds, according to Barometern-OT.
Now, the Southeast Rescue Service has investigated how this tragedy occurred—why the rescue team was dispatched but did not enter the villa to save the woman.
A mistake was that the officers on site did not understand the information from their internal command and SOS Alarm that the woman was alive.
The report describes how the officers on site were shocked by the dramatic fire they witnessed in the house.
"The officers got stuck in a faulty thought loop that it was impossible for a person to be alive in the villa," the investigator writes, according to Barometern-OT.
Officer Stuck in "Faulty Thought Loop"
Rutger Ekbrand, rescue chief at Southeast Rescue Service, told the newspaper that the information from the command center about the woman's ongoing emergency call was "too much of a contrast" to what they saw—a fully developed fire with flames through all windows and the roof collapsed.
"Their perception was that it was impossible for anyone to be alive there. They tried to find other solutions and began to consider if the woman could be in another building on the property," he told the newspaper.
Another difficulty was that the woman's bedroom was at the back, facing north, with dense vegetation outside, and a pump was not functioning properly.
The report suggests that the rescue team did not inspect the entire villa, which has been questioned afterward.
"Yes, it is standard to walk around and see the whole building, and attempts were made to do so, but they did not succeed because the vegetation was so dense, and they only managed to see three of four sides," Rutger Ekbrand told Barometern-OT.
He described the fatal fire as "a very special and tragic event with many unusual circumstances." The investigator proposes 13 different measures to ensure the tragedy is never repeated, one of which is better training.